Examining the Effects of Mental Health and Parent-Youth Relationship on the Associations Between Childhood Violence Exposure and Adolescent Dating Violence Perpetration.

Background/objectives: Adolescent dating violence (ADV) is a serious public health concern affecting youth worldwide. Potential risk factors of ADV include child maltreatment (CM) and intimate partner violence exposure (eIPV), though existing research on ADV perpetration specifically is inconsistent. There is limited research on co-occurring eIPV and CM, despite co-occurrence in 30-60% of homes where there is one. This study aims to address these gaps by testing the impact of childhood violence exposure on ADV perpetration and assessing two potential, theory-informed mitigating factors-mental health and parent-youth relationship.

Methods: This study utilizes moderated-mediation structural equation modeling with longitudinal data from a sample of 2354 U.S. adolescents (10-18) and one of their caregivers. Three models were tested: (1) childhood violence exposure (eIPV only, CM only, or co-occurring CM & EIPV) and ADV perpetration; (2) mediation by mental health quality on model 1; and (3) overall moderation by parent-youth relationship quality on model 2.

Results: The final sample consisted of 961 youth with a history of dating. A significant direct effect between eIPV and ADV perpetration was found. There was a significant direct effect between co-occurrence (eIPV & CM) and ADV perpetration, which was mediated by mental health quality.

Conclusions: This study further emphasizes the relation between eIPV and ADV and provides novel evidence of the impact co-occurrence has on ADV. Evidence of a trauma-informed mitigating factor, mental health quality, offers a potential point of intervention to be considered by mental health providers and ADV prevention/intervention programs.