Abstract
Perpetration of peer-targeted and dating aggression tends to co-occur in adolescence. However, few studies have examined relations among distinct forms of peer-targeted (physical, relational, cyber) and dating (physical, psychological, cyber) aggression. The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which youth were distinguishable based on the form of aggression they perpetrated (physical, relational or psychological, or cyber) or by the relational context of the perpetration (dating partners or peers). Participants were 185 ninth-grade students (Mage = 14.3 years, SD = 0.56) in the southeastern United States who participated in surveys collected in the fall of 2019 and were currently dating. The sample was predominantly African American (92%) and was evenly divided by gender (52% female). Three profiles emerged through latent profile analysis: (a) low frequency aggression (84.6%), (b) high frequency peer-targeted aggression (8.9%), and (c) high frequency dating aggression (6.5%). Youth are distinguishable by the relationship contexts in which they perpetrate aggression rather than by forms of aggression. This suggests that youth may selectively choose to use aggression in specific contexts and do not always generalize aggression to other relationship contexts. Prevention and intervention efforts should address the relational contexts of aggression perpetration.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barlett, C. P., & Wright, M. F. (2018). Longitudinal relations among cyber, physical, and relational bullying and victimization: Comparing majority and minority ethnic youth. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 11(1), 49–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-017-0174-8
Borrajo, E., Gámez-Guadix, M., Pereda, N., & Calvete, E. (2015). The development and validation of the cyber dating abuse questionnaire among young couples. Computers in Human Behavior, 48, 358–365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.01.063
Bowlby, J. (1982). Attachment and loss: Retrospect and prospect. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 52(4), 664–678. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.1982.tb01456.x
Branje, S. J., Frijns, T. O. M., Finkenauer, C., Engels, R., & Meeus, W. I. M. (2007). You are my best friend: Commitment and stability in adolescents’ same-sex friendships. Personal Relationships, 14(4), 587–603. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6811.2007.00173.x
Card, N. A., Stucky, B. D., Sawalani, G. M., & Little, T. D. (2008). Direct and indirect aggression during childhood and adolescence: A meta-analytic review of gender differences, intercorrelations, and relations to maladjustment. Child Development, 79(5), 1185–1229. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01184.x
Cerda-Smith, J., Gönültaş, S., & Mulvey, K. L. (2022). Adolescent peer aggression judgments and expected bystander intervention in teen dating violence. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 79, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2022.101389
Collins, W. A. (2003). More than myth: The developmental significance of romantic relationships during adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 13(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1111/1532-7795.1301001
Connolly, J., Pepler, D., Craig, W., & Taradash, A. (2000). Dating experiences of bullies in early adolescence. Child Maltreatment, 5(4), 299–310. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077559500005004002
Crick, N. R., & Grotpeter, J. K. (1995). Relational aggression, gender, and social-psychological adjustment. Child Development, 66(3), 710–722. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1995.tb00900.x
DeVellis, R. F. (2011). Scale development: Theory and applications (3rd ed.). NC: Chapel Hill.
Doyle, A. B., Lawford, H., & Markiewicz, D. (2009). Attachment style with mother, father, best friend, and romantic partner during adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 19(4), 690–714. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2009.00617.x
Ellis, W. E., Crooks, C. V., & Wolfe, D. A. (2009). Relational aggression in peer and dating relationships: Links to psychological and behavioral adjustment. Social Development, 18(2), 253–269. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2008.00468.x
Farrell, A. H., & Vaillancourt, T. (2019). Temperament, bullying, and dating aggression: Longitudinal associations for adolescents in a romantic relationship. Evolutionary Psychology, 17(2), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474704919847450
Farrell, A. D., Goncy, E. A., Sullivan, T. N., & Thompson, E. L. (2018). Evaluation of the problem behavior frequency scale-teacher report form for assessing behavior in a sample of urban adolescents. Psychological Assessment, 30(10), 1277. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000571
Farrell, A. D., Mays, S., Bettencourt, A., Erwin, E. H., Vulin-Reynolds, M., & Allison, K. W. (2010). Environmental influences on fighting versus nonviolent behavior in peer situations: A qualitative study with urban African American adolescents. American Journal of Community Psychology, 46(1), 19–35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-010-9331-z
Farrell, A. D., Thompson, E. L., Mehari, K. R., Sullivan, T. N., & Goncy, E. A. (2020). Assessment of in-person and cyber aggression and victimization, substance use, and delinquent behavior during early adolescence. Assessment, 27(6), 1213–1229. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191118792089
Foshee, V. A., Bauman, K. E., Ennett, S. T., Suchindran, C., Benefield, T., & Linder, G. F. (2005). Assessing the effects of the dating violence prevention program “Safe Dates” using random coefficient regression modeling. Prevention Science, 6(3), 245–258. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-005-0007-0
Foshee, V. A., Benefield, T., Suchindran, C., Ennett, S. T., Bauman, K. E., Karriker-Jaffe, K. J., Reyes, H. L., & Mathias, J. (2009). The development of four types of adolescent dating abuse and selected demographic correlates. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 19(3), 380–400. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2009.00593.x
Foshee, V. A., Linder, G. F., Bauman, K. E., Langwick, S. A., Arraiga, X. B., et al. (1996). The safe dates project: Theoretical basis, evaluation design, and selected baseline findings. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 12, 39–47.
Frey, K. S., Nolen, S. B., Van Schoiack Edstrom, L., & Hirschstein, M. K. (2005). Effects of a school-based social-emotional competence program: Linking children’s goals, attributions, and behavior. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 26(2), 171–200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2004.12.002
Furman, W. (2001). Working models of friendships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 18(5), 583–602. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407501185002
Furman, W. (2002). The emerging field of adolescent romantic relationships. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11(5), 177–180. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00195
Garthe, R. C., Sullivan, T. N., & Behrhorst, K. L. (2021). A latent class analysis of early adolescent peer and dating violence: Associations with symptoms of depression and anxiety. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(5–6), 2031–2049. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260518759654
Giordano, P. C., Copp, J. E., Longmore, M. A., & Manning, W. D. (2016). Anger, control, and intimate partner violence in young adulthood. Journal of Family Violence, 31(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-015-9753-3
Goncy, E. A., Farrell, A. D., Sullivan, T. N., & Taylor, K. A. (2016). Measurement of dating aggression during middle school: Structure, measurement invariance, and distinction from general aggression. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 26(3), 509–523. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12208
Hester, M., & Donovan, C. (2009). Researching domestic violence in same-sex relationships—A feminist epistemological approach to survey development. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 13(2), 161–173. https://doi.org/10.1080/10894160802695346
Joseph, H. L., & Kuperminc, G. P. (2020). Bridging the siloed fields to address shared risk for violence: Building an integrated intervention model to prevent bullying and teen dating violence. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 55, 101506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2020.101506
Kowalski, R. M., & Limber, S. P. (2007). Electronic bullying among middle school students. Journal of Adolescent Health, 41(6), 22–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2007.08.017
Kowalski, R. M., Giumetti, G. W., Schroeder, A. N., & Lattanner, M. R. (2014). Bullying in the digital age: A critical review and meta-analysis of cyberbullying research among youth. Psychological Bulletin, 140(4), 1073–1137. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035618
Lara, L. (2020). Cyber dating abuse: Assessment, prevalence, and relationship with offline violence in young Chileans. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 37(5), 1681–1699. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407520907159
Law, D. M., Shapka, J. D., Hymel, S., Olson, B. F., & Waterhouse, T. (2012). The changing face of bullying: An empirical comparison between traditional and internet bullying and victimization. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(1), 226–232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2011.09.004
Liao, Y., Huang, Z., Huh, J., Pentz, M. A., & Chou, C. P. (2013). Changes in friends’ and parental influences on cigarette smoking from early through late adolescence. Journal of Adolescent Health, 53(1), 132–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2013.01.020
Linder, J. R., Crick, N. R., & Collins, W. A. (2002). Relational aggression and victimization in young adults’ romantic relationships: Associations with perceptions of parent, peer, and romantic relationship quality. Social Development, 11(1), 69–86. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9507.00187
Lu, Y., Van Ouytsel, J., & Temple, J. R. (2021). In-person and cyber dating abuse: A longitudinal investigation. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 38(12), 3713–3731. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075211065202
Matuszka, B., Bácskai, E., Czobor, P., & Gerevich, J. (2017). Physical aggression and concurrent alcohol and tobacco use among adolescents. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 15(1), 90–99. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-015-9630-6
McCutcheon, A. L. (1987). Latent profile analysis. Sage.
Mehari, K. R., & Farrell, A. D. (2018). Where does cyberbullying fit? A comparison of competing models of adolescent aggression. Psychology of Violence, 8(1), 31–42. https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000081
Mehari, K. R., Farrell, A. D., & Le, A.-T.H. (2014). Cyberbullying among adolescents: Measures in search of a construct. Psychology of Violence, 4(4), 399–415. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037521
Miller, E., Jones, K. A., & McCauley, H. L. (2018). Updates on adolescent dating and sexual violence prevention and intervention. Current Opinion in Pediatrics, 30(4), 466–471. https://doi.org/10.1097/MOP.0000000000000637
Modecki, K. L., Minchin, J., Harbaugh, A. G., Guerra, N. G., & Runions, K. C. (2014). Bullying prevalence across contexts: A meta-analysis measuring cyber and traditional bullying. Journal of Adolescent Health, 55(5), 602–611. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2014.06.007
Murphy, C. M., & O’Leary, K. D. (1989). Psychological aggression predicts physical aggression in early marriage. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 57(5), 579. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.57.5.579
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2017). Mplus user’s guide (pp. 1998–2017). Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.
Nocentini, A., Fiorentini, G., Di Paola, L., & Menesini, E. (2019). Parents, family characteristics and bullying behavior: A systematic review. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 45, 41–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2018.07.010
Nylund, K. L., Asparouhov, T., & Muthén, B. O. (2007). Deciding on the number of classes in latent class analysis and growth mixture modeling: A Monte Carlo simulation study. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 14(4), 535–569. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705510701575396
Oberski, D. (2016). Mixture models: Latent profile and latent class analysis. Modern statistical methods for HCI (pp. 275–287). Cham: Springer.
Olweus, D. (1993). Bully/victim problems among schoolchildren: Long-term consequences and an effective intervention program. In S. Hodgins (Ed.), Mental disorder and crime (pp. 317–349). Sage Publications Inc.
Paulk, A. L., Pittman, J., Kerpelman, J., & Adler-Baeder, F. (2011). Associations between dimensions of security in romantic relationships and interpersonal competence among dating and non-dating high school adolescents. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 28(8), 1027–1047. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407510397985
Persram, R. J., Wong, T. K., Vargas-Madriz, L. F., Konishi, C., Dryburgh, N. S., Dirks, M. A., Martin-Storey, A., & Craig, W. (2021). Development and validation of the teen dating aggression measure among Canadian youth. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 5924.
Picard, P. (2007). Tech abuse in teen relationships. Teen Research Unlimited.
Ramaswamy, V., DeSarbo, W. S., Reibstein, D. J., & Robinson, W. T. (1993). An empirical pooling approach for estimating marketing mix elasticities with PIMS data. Marketing Science, 12(1), 103–124.
Richards, M., Romero, E., Zakaryan, A., Carey, D., Deane, K., Quimby, D., Patel, N., & Burns, M. (2015). Assessing urban African American youths’ exposure to community violence through a daily sampling method. Psychology of Violence, 5(3), 275–284. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038115
Steinberg, S. J., Davila, J., & Fincham, F. (2006). Adolescent marital expectations and romantic experiences: Associations with perceptions about parental conflict and adolescent attachment security. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35(3), 314–329. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-006-9042-9
Steinberg, L. (2011). Adolescent risk taking: A social neuroscience perspective. In E. Amsel & J. G. Smetana (Eds.), Adolescent vulnerabilities and opportunities: Developmental and constructivist perspectives (pp. 41–64). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139042819.005
Stets, J. E. (1991). Psychological aggression in dating relationships: The role of interpersonal control. Journal of Family Violence, 6(1), 97–114.
Stonard, K. E., Bowen, E., Lawrence, T. R., & Price, S. A. (2014). The relevance of technology to the nature, prevalence and impact of adolescent dating violence and abuse: A research synthesis. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 19(4), 390–417. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2014.06.005
Sullivan, T. N., O’Connor, K., Goncy, E. A., Garthe, R. C., Hitti, S. A., & Farrell, A. D. (2022). Patterns of dating and peer aggression and victimization among early adolescents: Relations with individual, peer, and school factors. Psychology of Violence, 12(2), 137–148. https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000415
Taquette, S. R., & Monteiro, D. L. M. (2019). Causes and consequences of adolescent dating violence: A systematic review. Journal of Injury and Violence Research, 11(2), 137. https://doi.org/10.5249/jivr.v11i2.1061
U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.) Quick Facts United States. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved December 6. 2020, from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045221
Van Ouytsel, J., Torres, E., Choi, H. J., Ponnet, K., Walrave, M., & Temple, J. R. (2017). The associations between substance use, sexual behaviors, bullying, deviant behaviors, health, and cyber dating abuse perpetration. The Journal of School Nursing, 33(2), 116–122. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059840516683229
Volk, A. A., Dane, A. V., Marini, Z. A., & Vaillancourt, T. (2015). Adolescent bullying, dating, and mating: Testing an evolutionary hypothesis. Evolutionary Psychology, 13(4), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474704915613909
Wang, J., & Wang, X. (2012). Structural equation modeling applications using Mplus: Methods and applications (3rd ed.). Wiley.
Wang, J., Iannotti, R. J., & Luk, J. W. (2012). Patterns of adolescent bullying behaviors: Physical, verbal, exclusion, rumor, and cyber. Journal of School Psychology, 50(4), 521–534. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2012.03.004
Whiteside, L. K., Ranney, M. L., Chermack, S. T., Zimmerman, M. A., Cunningham, R. M., & Walton, M. A. (2013). The overlap of youth violence among aggressive adolescents with past-year alcohol use—A latent class analysis: Aggression and victimization in peer and dating violence in an inner-city emergency department sample. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 74(1), 125–135. https://doi.org/10.15288/jsad.2013.74.125
Wincentak, K., Connolly, J., & Card, N. (2017). Teen dating violence: A meta-analytic review of prevalence rates. Psychology of Violence, 7(2), 224–241. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0040194
Zimmer-Gembeck, M. J. (2002). The development of romantic relationships and adaptations in the system of peer relationships. Journal of Adolescent Health, 31(6), 216–225. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1054-139X(02)00504-9
Zweig, J. M., Dank, M., Yahner, J., & Lachman, P. (2013). The rate of cyber dating abuse among teens and how it relates to other forms of teen dating violence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 42(7), 1063–1077. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-013-9922-8
Zych, I., Viejo, C., Vila, E., & Farrington, D. P. (2021). School bullying and dating violence in adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 22(2), 397–412. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838019854460
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors have no competing interests to disclose. This research was funded by an internal grant from University of South Alabama (PI: Mehari).
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Coleman, J.N., Nguyen, T., Waasdorp, T.E. et al. Patterns of Distinct Forms of Peer and Dating Aggression Perpetration in Adolescence. School Mental Health 15, 839–850 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-023-09590-1
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-023-09590-1