Adolescent–Parent Communication Among Youth Who Have and Have Not Experienced Dating Violence

Dating Violence Victimization Among Adolescent Girls in the American Rural South

“…A closer look at the patterns of the moderation effects shows that adolescent girls who had GDVV or SDVV experiences and reported greater peer approval were at relatively greater risk to report depressive symptoms or to report low self-esteem. These results suggest that high parental autonomy support is not only related to more dating violence victimization among adolescent girls as found by Niolon et al (2015), but it may also put girls who experienced dating violence victimization at elevated risk for internalizing problems. Therefore, parental autonomy support behaviors, which include peer approval and trusting daughters in their peer related activities, might conversely not prevent negative outcomes, such as internalizing problems after experiencing GDVV or SDVV.…”

“…For example, low maternal responsiveness coupled with high maternal autonomy granting behaviors might in fact be associated with greater sexual risk taking (Lanza et al, 2013). Similarly, autonomy supporting behaviors have been found to predict greater risk for dating violence victimization among adolescent girls two years later (Niolon et al, 2015). The associated sexual risk taking could be due to low monitoring as a result of high autonomy support, which gives adolescents more freedom and opportunities to engage in sexual behavior (Sneed et al, 2009), and early sexual behavior may escalate into risky sex (Lanza et al, 2013).…”

“…The associated sexual risk taking could be due to low monitoring as a result of high autonomy support, which gives adolescents more freedom and opportunities to engage in sexual behavior (Sneed et al, 2009), and early sexual behavior may escalate into risky sex (Lanza et al, 2013). Regarding the association between maternal autonomy supporting behaviors and dating violence victimization among adolescent girls, this could possibly be because of conflicts with the dating partner who demands dependence while girls strive for more autonomy/independence as supported by the mother (Niolon et al, 2015). Thus, high parental autonomy support behaviors might in fact not be protective, but rather potentiate dating violence victimization risk among girls.…”

“…Parental attitudes toward peers is an important part of autonomy granting behaviors (Lanza et al, 2013;Niolon et al, 2015), whether about friendships or dating relationships. Little research has considered how parental attitudes about peer relationships influence adolescent dating violence experiences or their adjustment following victimization.…”

“…In addition, high parental autonomy support, no matter for what reason, could be stressful to adolescents, as although adolescents strive for more independence while growing up, emotional care and continued closeness from parents remains paramount (Christ et al, 2017). This might explain why high autonomy support is, associated with some negative experiences among adolescent girls, such as greater sexual risk taking (Lanza et al, 2013;Niolon et al, 2015) or even more dating violence victimization (Sneed et al, 2009). Therefore, future research needs to study a variety of parental behaviors, including autonomy support as well as emotional responsiveness (Lanza et al, 2013), to better understand the links and underlying relationships between dating violence victimization and internalizing problems.…”