Risky Relationships and Teen Dating Violence Among At-Risk Adolescents, Charlottesville, Virginia, 2010-2012 (ICPSR 34597)
Version Date: Oct 26, 2023 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
N. Dickon Reppucci, University of Virginia;
Barbara A. Oudekerk, University of Virginia
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34597.v1
Version V1
Alternate Title View help for Alternate Title
Summary View help for Summary
Teen dating violence is linked to numerous longstanding consequences, such as delinquency, risky sexual behavior, and adult partner violence. The purpose of Project D.A.T.E. (Demand Appreciation, Trust, and Equality) was to address gaps in current research by focusing on romantic relationship experiences among at-risk adolescents living in and around Charlottesville, Virginia. The research team investigated risk and protective factors related to teen dating violence and positive relationship outcomes within a single relationship and across multiple relationships. The team also explored how early abusive relationships impact trajectories into later abusive relationships, and how age gaps between romantic partners might contribute to victimization and other negative outcomes.
The specific research questions for this longitudinal survey-based study were as follows:
- What risk and protective factors are related to teen dating violence and positive relationship outcomes within a single target relationship?
- What factors are associated with abuse across multiple relationships, and do early abusive relationships increase the likelihood youth will continue to experience abuse in future relationships?
- How are relationship-level characteristics associated with relationship abuse?
- Are adolescents at greater risk for victimization and negative reproductive health outcomes if they date older partners, and if so, why?
Participants included 223 adolescents (58% female, 61% African-American) who (1) were between 13 and 18 years old, (2) answered yes to "Have you ever 'dated someone' or been in a romantic relationship that lasted at least 1 month?", and (3) received community-based services (e.g., foster care, alternative schooling) or low-income services (e.g., free or reduced lunch, low-income housing). Participants completed two waves of two-hour, in-person, self-report interviews that took place about a year apart. In each interview, participants answered questions about abuse, intimacy, and health within up to three romantic relationships (thus, up to six relationships across two waves of data collection), in addition to socio-demographics, family, and schooling measures.
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Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
None
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 reason for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
The purpose of Project D.A.T.E. (Demand Appreciation, Trust, and Equality) was to provide insight into four gaps in current research on adolescent romantic relationships, particularly focusing on outcomes among low-income, at-risk adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18.
Study Design View help for Study Design
Participants completed two 2-hour in-person assessments, with the second assessment approximately a year after the first. Wave 1 data collection began in spring 2010 and continued for about 15 months. Wave 2 data collection took place between 12 and 23 months after the initial interview. Participants chose the location of their interviews for both assessments. At each interview, participants received a $50 gift card as compensation for their time.
To recruit participants, the research team collaborated with local agencies that provided services to at-risk youth in and around Central Virginia, including the Virginia Department of Social Services, the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice, alternative schooling programs, and multiple low-income housing developments. Some agencies initially screened youth for eligibility then provided researchers with contact information, while others distributed study flyers to youth who, if interested, contacted the research team for screening. Researchers distributed flyers in local low-income housing neighborhoods. As the study progressed, participants also referred other service-receiving peers.
Sample View help for Sample
Participants were recruited via purposive sampling. To be included, participants had to meet eligibility criteria: (1) they were between 13 and 18 years old, (2) answered yes to "Have you ever 'dated someone' or been in a romantic relationship that lasted at least 1 month?", and (3) received community-based services (e.g., foster care, alternative schooling) and/or low-income services (e.g., free or reduced lunch, low-income housing).
The full sample included 223 adolescents. Of those who participated in wave 1, 94.6% (n = 211) agreed to participate in wave 2. In terms of demographics, 57.8% of the sample self-identified as female. 61.4% self-identified as African-American, 21.5% as White, 13.5% as multiracial, 2.5% as Latino/a, and 1.1% as another racial-ethnic group. 86.1% reported receiving free or reduced lunch at the time of study.
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
Youth aged 13 to 18 years old living in and around Charlottesville, Virginia receiving community-based or low-income services.
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
Participants were asked to report on up to 3 romantic relationships at each wave (maximum of 6 different partners during study) and provided information for each:
- Relationship history: how much time spent together, satisfaction with relationship(s), decision-making split between partner(s) and respondent, relationship quality, (if broken up) who initiated and if the pair were pressured to by third parties
- Sexual history: if participant had sex with partner(s), if they contracted any STIs, contraception used (if any), if pregnancy occurred, age at first sexual contact with partner(s), motivations for/against sex
- Partner demographics: age (including age difference between participant and partner), gender, race/ethnicity
- Abuse victimization and perpetration (physical, sexual, psychological/emotional)
- Delinquent acts committed by partner and respondent (e.g., alcohol/drug use, stealing, carrying a weapon)
Other items were grouped by the following themes:
- Screener items: if eligible individuals received any local community services pertaining to low-income housing, free/reduced lunch, or other social services for at-risk youth (e.g., alternative schooling, after-school programming, foster care, juvenile justice)
- Respondent demographic variables: gender, age, race/ethnicity, religion, living arrangements, sexual identity
- School-related variables: If participant is currently enrolled in school, school type, number of expulsions and drop-outs, grade level, letter grade for core subjects, academic engagement
- Family relationships: parental monitoring, social support from family members, if participant witnessed intimate partner violence between parents/parental figures, parental neglect and violence experienced
- Delinquent acts committed by peers (e.g., stealing, carrying a weapon)
- Perceptions of relationship normalcy (e.g., most couples fight)
- Mental health: depression inventory, coping mechanisms/motivations when faced with problems
- Knowledge on Virginia laws regarding sex with minors
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
Not available.
Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales
- HANDS Depression screening tool (Harvard Department of Psychiatry/National Depression Screening Day Scale)
- Engagement versus Disaffection with Learning, Student Report: Behavioral Engagement and Disaffection subscales (BE and BD)
- Self Description Questionnaire II - Short (SDQII-S): Math Self-Concept, Verbal Self-Concept, Academic Self-Concept subscales
- Parental Monitoring Scale (PM)
- Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA): Parent Communication subscale
- Family Affluence Scale (FAS)
- Witnessing Parental Violence (WPV)
- Family Background Questionnaire (FBQ): Positive Childrearing, Child Neglect, Child Emotional Abuse, Child Physical Abuse subscales
- Denver Youth Study-Revised (DYS-R): Peer Delinquency, Friend's Delinquent Behavior, Negative Neighborhood subscales
- Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS): Physical Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Negotiation subscales
- Safe Dates Scales (SD): Emotional Abuse subscale
- Conflict Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory (CADRI): Sexual Abuse subscales
- Dispositional Trait HOPE Scale: Pathways and Agency subscales
- Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS)
- Collective Efficacy scale (CE)
- Self Report of Offending Scale (SRO)
- Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure - Revised (MEIM-R)
- Triangular Love Scale (TLS): Intimacy Subscale
- Romantic Attachment Scale (AS), adapted from Hazan and Shaver (1987)
- Brief COPE Scale
- Friendship Quality Questionnaire (FQQ)
- Motivations Against Sex (MAS) and Motivations For Sex (MS) scale
- Negative Neighborhood Quality (NegN)
Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2023-10-26
Version History View help for Version History
2023-10-26 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:
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Notes
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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.