Is Poorer than Peers and Neighbors Riskier?: Relative Deprivation and Adolescent Dating Violence in China

• In Event: Roundtable: Violence in Differing Contexts

Abstract

Despite ample evidence in the international literature supporting relative socioeconomic deprivation as a predictor of adult partner violence and many adolescent problems, whether the differential risk of dating violence by social status begins in adolescence is not well understood. According to relative deprivation theory, adolescents who make unfavorable social status comparisons with families of their same-school peers tend to perpetrate dating aggression to reassert their power and status. When it comes to neighborhood as a frame of reference, scholars of delinquency and adolescent health have introduced neighborhood resource theory, which offers a competing hypothesis of the benefits of relative deprivation: higher-income neighbors may be assets for child development even if such neighbors make the children feel deprived. This study dissects relative deprivation in the context of China. Based on survey data from high school students of 32 schools in cities and rural counties in Guangdong and Hunan provinces, adolescent dating violence increases with relative deprivation referenced to same-neighborhood members but not referenced to same-school peers. The significant positive association between relative deprivation and adolescent dating violence does not vary by urban and rural areas. This study does not echo neighborhood resource theory that argues for the benefits of relative deprivation.

Author

• Nicole W.T. Cheung, The Chinese University of Hong Kong