Elsevier

The Journal of Pediatrics

Volume 151, Issue 5, November 2007, Pages 476-481
The Journal of Pediatrics

Original article
Long-Term Impact of Adolescent Dating Violence on the Behavioral and Psychological Health of Male and Female Youth

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2007.04.034Get rights and content

Objective

To evaluate the long-term impact of adolescent dating violence (ADV) on behavioral and psychological health.

Study design

From a diverse sample of older adolescents who completed Project EAT in 1999 (wave 1) and 2004 (wave 2; mean age 20.4), 23 male and 102 female adolescents reporting ADV were compared with 671 male and 720 female adolescents reporting no ADV.

Results

ADV was positively associated with cigarette smoking and suicide attempts for both sexes, binge-eating and suicidal ideation in male adolescents, and smoking marijuana and high depressive symptoms in female adolescents in analyses unadjusted for wave 1 outcomes. In analyses adjusted for wave 1, in female adolescents, ADV was significantly associated with smoking cigarettes, marijuana use, and high depressive symptoms and marginally associated with suicide attempts; in male adolescents, ADV was significantly associated with smoking cigarettes and marginally associated with binge-eating and suicidal ideation. ADV was significantly associated with an overall high-risk profile (presence ≥3 health outcomes) for both sexes; results remained significant in female adolescents after adjusting for wave 1.

Conclusions

ADV is associated with greater likelihood of problematic health factors and increases nonspecific risk toward behavioral and psychological impairment in youth, particularly female adolescents.

Section snippets

Design, Setting, and Participants

Data were drawn from Project EAT, an epidemiologic study of adolescent eating behaviors and weight-related issues with 2 waves of data collection 5 years apart (wave 1 in 1999 and wave 2 in 2004; mean age, 20.4 years; SD = 0.8).17, 18 Project EAT participants were from 31 public middle and high schools in urban and suburban school districts in the greater St. Paul/Minneapolis, Minnesota, area; participants were diverse by age, race, body mass index, and socioeconomic status. In wave 1,

Results

Overall, 23 male and 102 female respondents reported ADV greater than 1 year ago. There were no significant differences in ADV by race or socioeconomic status.

Discussion

In this study, adolescent dating violence was found to be a nonspecific risk factor for behavioral and psychological health concerns, primarily among female youth. The lack of significant findings for male youth may be due to the small number of males affected by ADV, yielding low power to detect associations in sex-stratified analyses. Our findings are consistent with the many cross-sectional studies that have found that those who report ADV also report a myriad of health concerns.1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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  • Cited by (0)

    Supported by a grant (R40 MC 00319-02; D.N-S., principal investigator) from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (Title V, Social Security Act), Health Resources and Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services. The funding agency supported the collection and analysis of the data; study design, interpretation of data analyses, writing of the report, and submission decisions are the sole responsibility of the authors.

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