Patterns of Early Adolescent Involvement in Peer and Dating Aggression and Victimization: Associations With Individual, Social, and Community Factors

Abstract

The current study aimed to identify patterns of early adolescents' involvement in peer and dating violence, and examine the extent to which each subgroup is associated with individual, social, and community-level risk and promotive factors. Participants included a sample of 1,738 early adolescents (M_age = 13.2 years; 91% Black; 51% female) from three public, urban middle schools in the Southeastern United States who reported dating in the past 3 months. A latent class analysis (LCA) was conducted to identify unique patterns of peer and dating aggression and victimization involvement among early adolescents, and their association with community violence exposure, trauma symptoms, substance use, presence of caring adults, and positive outlook. LCA identified three classes: (a) limited involvement (55%), (b) peer aggression and victimization (34%), and (c) cross-context aggression and dating victimization (11%). Early adolescents involved in cross-context aggression and victimization demonstrated significantly higher levels of risk factors and lower levels of promotive factors compared to those involved in other patterns of violence. Other differences in individual-, social-, and community-level factors were found across subgroups and are discussed. These findings highlight the importance of identifying risk and promotive factors operating across the multiple socio-ecological domains in early adolescents' lives. There is also an ongoing and crucial need for prevention and intervention efforts that address the co-occurrence of aggression and victimization across dating and peer contexts.

Keywords: early adolescence; latent class analysis; peer and dating violence; risk and promotive.