Dating Violence Victimization and Associated Risk Behaviors of 9th through 12th Grade High School Students

Includes bibliographical references (pages 33-36).Teenage dating violence (TDV) is a significant public health problem. The 2011 Youth Risk Behavior survey found that 9.4% of students in the United States reported that they had been hit, slapped, or physically hurt on purpose by their boyfriend or girlfriend. The purpose of this study was to examine teenage risk behaviors and their association with dating violence victimization. Also further investigating if there is a relationship between an outcome of teen dating violence and the number of risk behaviors that a teenager is involved in. Using the 2011 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) a cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the relationship between risk behaviors and youth dating violence\ud victimization of 9th through 12th grade high school students. The final multivariate logistic regression model showed alcohol use, smoking, condom use and ethnicity were associated with teenage dating violence victimization. After adjusting for alcohol use, smoking, marijuana use and ethnicity, students who had sexual intercourse during the past three\ud months and they or their partner used a condom during last sexual intercourse [OR=3.010, CI (2.512, 3.606)] as well as those who did not use a condom during last sexual intercourse [OR=5.690, CI (4.672, 6.929)] were significantly more likely to be victims of teenage dating\ud violence than those students who had never had sex. Without adjusting for any other covariates, students who indicated that they had participated in 1 of the risk behaviors (alcohol use, smoking, marijuana use, sex with a condom) at the time of the YRBS were significantly more likely to be victims of teenage dating violence [OR=2.516, CI (1.736, 3.645)] than those students who did not participate in any of the risk behaviors analyzed in this study. The risk behavior of sex without a condom had the strongest association with teenage dating violence victimization throughout the study. The results of this study have important implications for early identification of teens at risk of teenage dating violence\ud (TDV) victimization