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This study examines whether experiences of familial victimization and aggression are potential risk factors for dating violence in male and female teenage relationships. The authors compare 471 adolescents aged 12 to 19 in the care of a youth protection agency and from a community sample. Results show that adolescents carry negative childhood experiences of family violence into their intimate relationships in different ways, depending on gender and level of risk. Female adolescents who had been victimized by either of their parents were at greater risk for revictimization, but not aggression, within their dating relationships. High-risk adolescent males who reported childhood victimization were at a particularly high risk of being aggressive toward their girlfriends, especially if they were harshly disciplined by their father. The extent of aggression toward parents predicted aggression toward dating partners, particularly for girls. The authors discuss these findings in terms of prevention and early intervention efforts.

To document extrafamily victimization, exposure to community violence and polyvictimization in a child welfare sample of children and youths. Method: Telephone interviews were conducted among 138 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years and 82 caregivers of children aged 2 to 11 years followed by child welfare agencies in Quebec to document the victimization experienced by children during the past year. Results: The vast majority (90%) of young people were the target of direct or indirect past-year victimizations, with the majority of these victims (93%) being the target of more than one form of victimization. More than half of the sample (54%) experienced at least four forms of victimization in the past year. Conclusions: This first study documenting polyvictimization in a child welfare sample outlines that practitioners should inquire about a wide range of victimization experiences. Focusing intervention on a single form of victimization (maltreatment) does not address the specific service needs of children chronically victimized and fails to address their high risk of victimization in the community. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms linked to the increased victimization risk among maltreated children in order to develop effective intervention and prevention programs.

This study sought to document lifetime experiences of individual categories of victimizations and polyvictimization using the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire among children from the province of Quebec (Canada) to examine whether polyvictimization predicts mental health symptoms and to assess whether categories of victimization still contribute to mental health symptoms after considering polyvictimization. Polyvictimization accounted for the most variability in scores for depression, anxiety, and anger/aggression compared with individual victimization categories. None of the individual categories of victimization made an independent contribution to the prediction of trauma scores, once polyvictimization was considered.