Original article
Patterns of Intimate Partner Violence Victimization from Adolescence to Young Adulthood in a Nationally Representative Sample

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.03.011Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

To determine the prevalence of patterns of intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization from adolescence to young adulthood, and document associations with selected sociodemographic and experiential factors.

Methods

We used prospective data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to group 4134 respondents reporting only opposite-sex romantic or sexual relationships in adolescence and young adulthood into four victimization patterns: no IPV victimization, adolescent-limited IPV victimization, young adult onset IPV victimization, and adolescent–young adult persistent IPV victimization.

Results

Forty percent of respondents reported physical or sexual victimization by young adulthood. Eight percent experienced IPV only in adolescence, 25% only in young adulthood, and 7% showed persistent victimization. Female sex, Hispanic and non-Hispanic black race/ethnicity, an atypical family structure (something other than two biologic parents, step-family, single parent), more romantic partners, experiencing childhood abuse, and early sexual debut (before age 16) were each associated with one or more patterns of victimization versus none. Number of romantic partners and early sexual debut were the most consistent predictors of violence, its timing of onset, and whether victimization persisted across developmental periods. These associations did not vary by biological sex.

Conclusions

Substantial numbers of young adults have experienced physical or sexual IPV victimization. More research is needed to understand the developmental and experiential mechanisms underlying timing of onset of victimization, whether victimization persists across time and relationships, and whether etiology and temporal patterns vary by type of violence. These additional distinctions would inform the timing, content, and targeting of violence prevention efforts.

Section snippets

Overview of study data

Add Health was designed to examine determinants of health and health-related behaviors of adolescents in grades 7–12 in 1994–1995. A representative self-weighted core sample and several special samples were selected for in-home interviews [28]. More than 21,000 Wave I in-home interviews were completed in 1995 (79% of eligibles). Almost 15,000 respondents were reinterviewed at Wave II in 1996 (88% of eligibles); in 2001, a Wave III interview was conducted with about 15,200 respondents who

Descriptive and bivariate results

Table 1 presents characteristics for the analytic sample. Weighted percentages provide representative estimates of the adolescent U.S. population who report exclusively heterosexual relationships in both adolescence and young adulthood. Partner violence is prevalent: 8.3% experienced victimization only in adolescence, 24.8% experienced victimization only in young adulthood, and 7.2% experienced victimization in both adolescence and adulthood. Many more respondents report physical rather than

Discussion

Using a nationally representative, longitudinal sample of males and females, we examined partner violence victimization onset timing and persistence between adolescence and young adulthood. We examined how patterns vary by individual characteristics and experiential factors relevant to the heterogeneity and state dependence models. Cumulatively 40% of respondents (36% of males and 44% of females) reported onset of physical or sexual victimization by young adulthood. These population-based

Conclusions

Substantial numbers of adolescents are persistently victimized, suggesting developmental linkages between adolescent and adult romantic relationships. To answer broad questions about the timing and persistence of IPV victimization, we aggregated across violence types in our analyses. It would be useful in future longitudinal work to disaggregate victimization types to examine their specific patterns over time, and to investigate whether contributors to persistent IPV victimization vary by type

Acknowledgments

Ms. Spriggs' time on this project was supported by the Carolina Population Center, NICHD NRSA predoctoral traineeship, grant number NIH-NICHD T32-HD07168.

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R.

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