Intimate Partner Violence in the Transition to Young Adulthood: Variability across Relationships and Individuals

Aubrey Spriggs Madkour, Tulane University
Gretchen Clum, Tulane University
Catherine Taylor, Tulane University
Katherine Theall, Tulane University

Although theoretical models suggest substantial heterogeneity across an individual’s relationships in partner violence risk (Capaldi & Kim, 2007), most studies in adolescence/early adulthood assess violence at a single time point summarized across relationships. We will analyze data from Waves I and III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. At Wave III (2001), 12,426 persons reported relationship violence experiences within 20,460 relationships that had occurred since 1995. Individual and partner characteristics will be examined as predictors of relationship violence victimization and perpetration using the Conflict Tactics Scale 2 (minor physical, moderate physical, sexual, and injury). Three-level models with random intercepts for individuals and schools will be run to (1) quantify the variability in relationship violence outcomes attributable to the different levels; (2) explore the associations between individual and partner characteristics and outcomes; and (3) assess the proportion of variance in outcomes explained by individual and partner characteristics.