Dating violence is increasingly recognized as a significant problem among adolescents, even those in middleschool. What is even more surprising is the fact that females report perpetrating more dating violence thanmales. Studies have shownthat exposures to physical violence at many levels (individuals, peers, family,community) is generally more predictive of dating violence for males than females. A different type ofviolence exposure, that of relational aggression, remains a largely unexplored risk for dating violencebehavior. Relational aggression, defined as behaviors aimed at inflicting harm through the manipulation ofrelationships, threat of damage to them or both, is often characteristic of girls. In conjunction with a CDCfunded dating violence project, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship of relationalaggression and relational victimization to dating violence behaviors among urban, African American middleschool students. Examining relational aggression in middle school students may provide a greaterunderstanding of gender differences in dating violence behaviors and is necessary to better informpreventative practices.
| Williams, Jessica Roberts; Fredland, Nina; Han, Hae-Ra et al. (2009) Relational aggression and adverse psychosocial and physical health symptoms among urban adolescents. Public Health Nurs 26:489-99 |
| Williams, Jessica R; Ghandour, Reem M; Kub, Joan E (2008) Female perpetration of violence in heterosexual intimate relationships: adolescence through adulthood. Trauma Violence Abuse 9:227-49 |
