This article summarizes a NIJ-grant report entitled, "Teen Dating Violence Victimization in an Urban Sample of Early Adolescents: Measurement, Prevalence," which is based on a study of teen dating violence perpetration and victimization among urban middle-school youth.
The research relied primarily on a secondary analysis of a 5-year project that collected data on youth violence and related risk factors as part of an evaluation of violence-prevention efforts. The VCU-YVPC study was conducted in three middle schools in Richmond, VA. Details of study methodology are provided. Approximately 40 percent of respondents reported at least one act of psychological or physical dating violence, and almost 50 percent reported experiencing one act of psychological or physical dating victimization in the past 3 months. Five categories of youth emerged in terms of involvement in dating violence: uninvolved (54.6 percent); victims (8.3 percent); aggressors (9.7 percent); aggressive victims (5.4 percent); and psychologically aggressive victims (22 percent). Youth who were physically and psychologically aggressive in their dating relationships were physically aggressive in other domains as well. This was also true for youth who were primarily victimized in their dating relationships. Youth who reported any sort of victimization reported more trauma-related distress symptoms, even if they were also aggressive. This suggests that programs should be tailored for students experiencing dating violence victimization, since they may also have higher rates of trauma-related distress or involvement in other forms of violence. 1 figure