Childhood Trauma Moderates Link Between Adversarial Communication and Dating Violence Involvement Among Justice-Involved Girls

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Social Relationships

Abstract

Girls involved in the juvenile justice system have exceedingly high rates of childhood trauma exposure. Further, justice involved teens are at elevated risk for dating violence (DV) given several factors, one of which may include a lack of healthy relationship skills. A crucial skill in navigating interpersonal conflict is effective communication. The literature suggests inexperience in communicating and relating to a romantic partner may lead to the use of poor coping strategies, including verbal and physical aggression (Larson & Collins, 1994). Given the high rates of trauma associated with this population, and reported linkages between early adversity and difficulties in interpersonal relationships, this study theorizes higher childhood trauma will strengthen the relationship between adversarial communication and dating violence.
Baseline data from a randomized trial of a group-based dating violence prevention program (DateSMART) were collected from N=245 court-involved, non-incarcerated adolescent females, ages 14-18 years (M=15.57, SD=1.13). Racial/ethnic distribution of the sample was 48% Hispanic; 18.4% African American, 29.8% White, 4.9% American Indian/Alaskan Native, 1.2% Asian, 0.8% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and 22.4% “Other” race and 3.3% did not report their race. Sixty four percent qualified for free or reduced-price lunch. Seventy-one percent (n = 175) endorsed exposure to five or more adversity/victimization events. Participants completed questionnaires on private laptops, including demographics questions, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ; Bernstein & Finkelhor, 1998), the Couples Communication Inventory (CCI; Sanford, 2010), and the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Violence Inventory (CADRI; Wolfe et al., 2001).
This study included the 184 females that endorsed having one or more dating partners at baseline. Of those, 83.7% endorsed verbal/emotional DV and 38% endorsed physical/sexual DV involvement in a current or recent relationship. Given the high rates of emotional and verbal DV involvement in this sample, more severe forms of dating violence (i.e. physical and sexual) were assessed as an outcome. As expected, childhood trauma, adversarial communication, and ADV were correlated at the bivariate level (r’s .26-.30). A hierarchal linear regression was conducted to examine the role of childhood trauma in moderating the association between adversarial communication (e.g., criticism, hostility, and defensiveness) and DV involvement (i.e., physical and sexual abuse). Unconditional main effects of childhood trauma and adversarial communication were observed. For both, higher rates were associated with more DV involvement (CTQ, B = .11, p < .001; Adversarial Communication, B = .11, p < .001). There was also a significant interaction whereby for those reporting more childhood trauma, the association between adversarial communication and DV was stronger relative to those reporting lower amounts of childhood trauma (B = .08, p < .01).
Consistent with preliminary research, childhood trauma and adversarial communication were associated with greater DV involvement. Further, greater childhood adversity may put youth at particular risk for DV experiences linked to adversarial communication. Longitudinal data are needed to fully understand these relationships. Our findings point to the importance and necessity of targeted DV prevention interventions for high-risk populations, particularly with those who have experienced childhood trauma, to reduce the likelihood of future unhealthy communication and relational patterns.

Authors

• Payton Bruland, Northeastern University
  Presenting Author

• Christie J Rizzo, Northeastern University
  Non-Presenting Author