Adolescent Dating Violence as a Reaction to Social Status Changes Over Time: A Network Approach

• In Event: 4167 - Section on Children and Youth Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Children & Youth Roundtable 1: Emotional Health

Abstract

Employing data from a longitudinal social network study of a U.S. high school, I examine status change over time in relation to intimate partner violence (IPV) between adolescent heterosexual couples. I test the masculine overcompensation thesis and hypothesize that longitudinal status loss for males will predict an increase in propensity to perpetrate IPV. My statistical results show that it is male’s increasing status longitudinally which significantly predicts IPV. These findings suggest that the masculine overcompensation thesis does not hold amongst adolescents, and that IPV perpetration by males is not a reaction to status loss within the broader social network.

Author

• Jessica Gold, University of California, Davis