Victim to Aggressor: The Relationship Between Intimate Partner Violence Victimization, Perpetration, and Mental Health Symptoms Among Teenage Girls

The study investigated the prevalence of female-to-male dating violence, mental health symptoms, and violent attitudes among 727 female high school students. Participants completed surveys asking about experiences of dating violence victimization/perpetration, mental health symptoms, and justification of violence. Correlations among female victims of dating violence revealed moderate positive associations between sexual, physical, and psychological violence, and female's acceptance of male violence toward girls. Multiple regressions found significant predictors of negative mental health consequences, which consisted of experiencing psychological violence and justification of violence. Further analysis revealed that female participants who experienced three types of dating violence (physical, sexual, and psychological) were significantly more likely to perpetrate three types of dating violence (physical, psychological, and sexual). These findings suggest that among teenage girls justification of violence and experiencing dating violence are significant predictors of future negative mental health and violence perpetration.