Prevalence and Predictors of Violent Victimization Among Midlife Adult Women and Men in the United States

Violent victimization is associated with numerous negative health and economic consequences, as well as elevated risk for subsequent victimization. Understanding risk and protective factors is important given the potential related harms, but most existing research focuses on adolescent samples or lacks key measures theorized to influence victimization risk. The present study uses data collected as part of Wave 4 (Mage = 28.3; collected 2008-2009) and Wave 5 (Mage = 37.3; collected 2016-2018) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to examine the prevalence and longitudinal predictors of violent victimization among adult women (n = 5880) and men (n = 4354) in the United States, with a focus on participant sociodemographic characteristics, history of abuse, social relationships and living arrangements, violent behavior, substance use, temperament, and mental health. Findings indicate that the prevalence for violent victimization is significantly higher among men relative to women, though the gender gap narrows as individuals approach middle adulthood (Wave 4: men = 17.3%, women = 10.4%; Wave 5: men = 6.8%, women = 4.7%). Gender-specific logistic regression analyses were used to obtain odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals for significant correlates of violent victimization at Wave 5. Results reveal both general and gender-specific risk and protective factors.