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. 2024 Dec;34(4):1287-1299.
doi: 10.1111/jora.12987. Epub 2024 May 30.

Inter-parental conflict and empathy in early adolescence as predictors of dating violence perpetration in adolescence and adulthood

Carlos N Espinoza  1 , Marlon Goering  1 , Sylvie Mrug  1
Affiliations

Inter-parental conflict and empathy in early adolescence as predictors of dating violence perpetration in adolescence and adulthood

Carlos N Espinoza et al. J Res Adolesc. 2024 Dec.

Abstract

Witnessing inter-parental conflict is associated with dating violence perpetration in late adolescence and adulthood. This relationship may be moderated by adolescents' empathy, with more empathic youth viewing their parents' conflict behavior as less acceptable, and thus refraining from dating violence perpetration. This study sought to determine if empathy buffers the effects of inter-parental conflict in early adolescence on expected dating violence perpetration in early adolescence and actual dating violence perpetration in late adolescence and adulthood. Moreover, this study tested if expected dating violence perpetration in early adolescence and dating violence perpetration in late adolescence mediate the effects of inter-parental conflict and empathy on dating violence perpetration in adulthood. Sex differences in these relationships were also examined. The sample included 412 adolescents (52% male, 73% Black, 25% White, 2% Other) who participated at three time points between 2006 and 2022 (T1-T3, Mean age = 13, 18, 28 years). Results indicated that higher inter-parental conflict and lower empathy were associated with higher expected dating violence perpetration at T1 in both males and females. Inter-parental conflict at T1 predicted higher dating violence perpetration at T3 through expected dating violence perpetration at T1 and dating violence perpetration at T2. Empathy at T1 predicted lower dating violence perpetration at T3 directly and also indirectly through lower expected dating violence at T1 and lower dating violence perpetration at T2 in both sexes. There were no interaction effects of inter-parental conflict and empathy on expected or actual dating violence perpetration at any age.

Keywords: dating violence perpetration; empathy; inter‐parental conflict; longitudinal.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors contributed in a manner that was deemed to warrant authorship of this manuscript. All participants consented to their participation in this study and all procedures were approved by the IRB. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Hypothesized model. + = Hypothesized positive relationship, − = Hypothesized negative relationship. Sex differences in these relationships were also examined.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Mediation model results. Bold lines indicate mediation pathway. **p < .01.
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