Technology, Teen Dating Violence and Abuse, and Bullying in Three States, 2011-2012 (ICPSR 34741)
Version Date: Feb 15, 2016 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Janine Zweig, Urban Institute;
Meredith Dank, Urban Institute
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34741.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
This project examined the role of technology use in teen dating violence and abuse, and bullying. The goal of the project was to expand knowledge about the types of abuse experiences youth have, the extent of victimization and perpetration via technology and new media (e.g., social networking sites, texting on cellular phones), and how the experience of such cyber abuse within teen dating relationships or through bullying relates to other life factors.
This project carried out a multi-state study of teen dating violence and abuse, and bullying, the main component of which included a survey of youth from ten schools in five school districts in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, gathering information from 5,647 youth about their experiences. The study employed a cross-sectional, survey research design, collecting data via a paper-pencil survey. The survey targeted all youth who attended school on a single day and achieved an 84 percent response rate.
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Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
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State
Restrictions View help for Restrictions
Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reasons for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.
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Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
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Quality control of the data entry process involved close monitoring of data entry staff and random selection of surveys for review. Staff were trained to identify surveys that appeared to be not taken seriously and were brought to the project director to verify that the survey should not be entered. Also, surveys were checked if the respondent answered the most severe frequency option to all abuse (victimization and perpetration) and risk behaviors. These were reviewed and a final determination to either include or remove the survey was based on the likelihood that the survey was taken in seriousness. Approximately four percent of the surveys taken were removed from the final sample after data entry and data cleaning.
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
The Urban Institute's Justice Policy Center examined the role of youth technology use in teen dating violence and abuse, and bullying. The goal of the study was to expand knowledge about the types of abuse experiences youth have, the extent of victimization and perpetration via technology and new media, such as social networking sites and texting on cellular phones, and how experiencing such cyber abuse within teen dating relationships or through bullying relates to other life factors.
This study contributes to the knowledge base on which policy and program developers, school administrators, victim advocates, and criminal justice personnel rely on to develop evidence-based policies and strategies to address these problems.
The specific questions asked in this study was in two main parts:
Teen Dating Violence and Abuse : To understand the role of cyber abuse in youth dating violence and abuse.
- How often do youth experience dating violence and abuse victimization?
- How often do youth perpetrate dating violence and abuse?
- Does teen dating violence and abuse vary by gender, and is it reciprocal?
- Does teen dating violence and abuse vary by other subgroup status?
- Does teen dating violence and abuse happen at school?
- Do teen dating violence and abuse victims seek help?
- How often does cyber dating abuse co-occur with other types of violence and abuse, including cyber bullying?
- How does cyber dating abuse relate to other life factors?
Bullying : To understand the role of cyber bullying in youth's lives.
- How often do youth experience bullying victimization?
- How often do youth perpetrate bullying?
- Does bullying vary by gender, and do bullying victims and perpetrators overlap?
- Does bullying vary by other subgroup status?
- Does bullying happen at school?
- Do bullying victims seek help?
- How often does cyber bullying co-occur with other types of violence and abuse, including cyber dating abuse?
- How does cyber bullying relate to other life factors?
Study Design View help for Study Design
The study employed a cross-sectional survey research design to capture the prevalence of youths' experiences with teen dating violence and abuse, and bullying. Particularly in regards to cyber abuse; compared those rates across differing subgroups of youth; and examined the correlational associations between such experiences and other life factors.
The study conducted a large-scale survey of 7th to 12th grade youth, using a convenience sampling of schools in the Northeastern United States. The sampling goals were :
- To achieve a sample size large enough to examine teen dating violence and abuse, and bullying, given that only a portion of any sample would report such experiences.
- To recruit schools that were willing to allow access to youth on a single school day to conduct a survey about sensitive topics.
- To recruit schools with populations diverse enough to yield sizable, racially/ethnically and socioeconomically diverse subgroups of youth.
The final study sample included ten schools across five school districts located in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
The survey questions asked youth about their demographic backgrounds; technology use; experiences with dating relationships, including violence and abuse; experiences with bullying; other risky behaviors (e.g., sexual activity, substance use); psychosocial adjustment (e.g., depression, anger/hostility); family relationships; and school experiences.
The surveys were conducted in classrooms and administered by school staff trained by the research team, with the New York and Pennsylvania schools surveyed in October and November 2011, and the New Jersey schools surveyed in April 2012.
Sample View help for Sample
Youths in attendance at school for the day the survey was conducted in 2011 and 2012, from ten middle and high schools in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
Adolescents attending high school and middle school in the states of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
The Technology, Teen Dating Violence and Abuse, and Bullying in Three States dataset is composed of 669 variables and 5,647 records.
It contains variables on the demographic backgrounds of the youths, family relationships, school experiences, computer use, cellphone use, experiences with dating relationships, experiences in cyber dating abuse, experiences with physical dating violence, experiences with bullying, experiences with psychological abuse, sexual activity and coercion, substance use, help sought and received, psychosocial adjustment state, and some recoded versions of the previously mentioned variables.
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
84 percent.
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2015-12-25
Version History View help for Version History
- Zweig, Janine, and Meredith Dank. Technology, Teen Dating Violence and Abuse, and Bullying in Three States, 2011-2012. ICPSR34741-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2016-02-15. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34741.v1
2016-02-15 Updated the User Guide.
2016-01-27 Updated public files.
2016-01-18 Update to the User guide to correct for missing Publications and NIJ Data Resources Program section.
2015-12-25 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Performed consistency checks.
- Created variable labels and/or value labels.
- Standardized missing values.
- Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.
One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.
This dataset is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), the criminal justice archive within ICPSR. NACJD is primarily sponsored by three agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice: the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.