Who beats their partner, and who beats their schoolmates? A comparison of teen dating and school physical violence perpetration in Lower Saxony, Germany

Abstract

Teen dating violence (TDV) and school violence (SV) are two major social problems in adolescence. Until recently, the antecedents of both TDV and SV have been analyzed largely independently of each other. This study analyses and compares the determinants of both TDV and SV, with a focus on physical violence. Based on a comprehensive survey of ninth‐grade adolescents at the average age of 15 years (N = 3,800) conducted in the German federal state of Lower Saxony, the findings showed that there is a significant but low correlation between both physical TDV and SV (r = 0.21). Concerning the determinants, we found that males carry out physical SV significantly more often, but physical TDV significantly less often than female respondents. Acquaintance with violent friends shows a stronger correlation with SV but not with TDV. Low self‐control and violent media consumption are determinants of both TDV and SV. Empathy as a protective factor and parental violence as another risk factor were found to be only weak and sometimes not significantly correlated with both TDV and SV.

Teen dating violence: From analyzing the problem to finding solutions

“…Moreover, the current evidence clearly shows that the occurrence of teen dating violence varies in relation to variables in adolescents' social environment. Exposure to violence in the family (Toplu-Demirtaş & Aracı-İyiaydın, 2021), having friends who engage in violent behavior (Baier et al, 2021), and experiencing low levels of informal control in the family and school context (Bertok et al, 2021) were all identified as correlates of teen dating violence, again confirming established findings from previous research.…”

“…Moreover, as Tomaszewska and Schuster (2021) highlight, the available evidence from Europe—just as from North America—predominantly examined dating violence among heterosexual youth, neglecting youth with a LGBTQIA+ identity. Moreover, as shown by the individual studies, the issue of gender differences in teen dating violence victimization and perpetration is still far from being resolved, with higher prevalence rates for physical dating violence perpetration among females found in some studies (Baier et al., 2021; Bertok et al., 2021), but not in others (Schuster et al., 2021; Toplu‐Demirtaş & Aracı‐İyiaydın, 2021). Moreover, comparing perpetration rates for male and female adolescents may yield different conclusions for different forms of dating violence (Oyarzún et al., 2021).…”

“…They also suggest that dating violence is not an isolated phenomenon in the social relationships of adolescents. Instead, it shows overlap and parallels with other forms of aggression, such as school violence (Baier et al., 2021), and is predicted by broader normative beliefs about the acceptability of aggression over and above specific attitudes condoning physical aggression against a dating partner (Schuster et al., 2021).…”

Introduction to the special issue. Prevalence and predictors of teen dating violence: A European perspective

“…Based on representative data of ninth‐grade adolescents from the German federal state of Lower Saxony, the fourth contribution by Baier et al. (2021) addresses a wide range of individual and environmental variables and examines them as predictors of both physical TDV and physical school violence. The authors provided differentiated conclusions for prevention measures, suggesting that these measures should be more specific when only physical TDV is perpetrated or when physical TDV and physical school violence co‐occurred.…”

The gender symmetry problem in physical teen dating violence: A commentary and suggestions for a research agenda

“…The results found in these studies corroborate patterns of gender differences found previously: Among heterosexual romantic partners, sexual violence is far more likely to be perpetrated by males, irrespective of the informant (Oyarzún et al., 2021; Tomaszewska & Schuster, 2021). In contrast, prevalence estimates based on self‐reported physical violence perpetration tend to show higher rates for female than for male adolescents (Baier et al., 2021; Bertok et al., 2021; Tomaszewska & Schuster, 2021; Toplu‐Demirtaş & Aracı‐İyiaydın, 2021). Self‐reported physical victimization rates were found to be broadly similar for bother genders.…”