Dating it Safe (Longitudinal)

The purpose of the NIH and NIJ- funded Dating it Safe study is to examine the longitudinal risk and protective factors of dating violence (or adolescent relationship abuse). A sample of 1,042 high school students were recruited from seven public high schools and assessed as freshman/sophomore high school students in 2010 and have been assessed annually. 

This study has already generated some of the first data demonstrating 

• a temporal link between substance use and domestic violence (DV), 
• the intergenerational link between witnessing mother-to-father violence and DV perpetration and victimization(in press), 
• the importance of considering sexual orientation in examining DV, 
• the association between DV and borderline personality disorder, 
• teen sexting and sexual behaviors, including a longitudinal association, 
• the course and stability of DV over time, 
• a longitudinal relationship between DV and risky sexual behavior among females, 
• that sexual minority youth report higher levels of borderline features than heterosexual youth, 
• a prospective relationship between between avoidance of internal states and borderline features in adolescents, and 
• the role of parental closeness in mediating the relationship between problematic parental substance and adolescent substance use.