This study identified risk and protective factors for dating violence (DV) among young adults (ages 18-22) with a history of maltreatment and placement in foster care, focusing on factors that ameliorated the effects of risk to reduce DV perpetration and victimization in young adulthood.
This study - one of the first to examine an array of risk and protective factors over 10 years among a high-risk sample for dating violence - found that an overwhelming majority of youth in the study (N=243) reported perpetrating and also being the victim of at least one past-year incident of DV. Regarding risk factors, only exposure to "moral-legal maltreatment" was related to DV in young adulthood. This is defined as the caregiver exposing or involving the child in illegal activity or other activities that may foster delinquency or antisocial behavior. The study found that emotional/verbal abuse was the most common type of abuse experienced and perpetrated, with physical and sexual abuse being the least reported type of abuse. Future research will examine gender differences and the contextual factors associated with dating violence. 4 tables and 20 references