Teens involved in dating violence are also violent with siblings, peers

A new study has found that people who physically assault dating partners have a history of perpetrating violence involving siblings and peers.

Emily F Rothmanm, of the Boston University, and colleagues surveyed 1,398 high school students at 22 public high schools in Boston from January through April of 2008.

Overall, one-fifth (18.7%) of students reported having perpetrated physical dating violence in the past month.

Specifically, 9.9% reported hitting, punching, kicking or choking their partner; 17.6% pushed, shoved or slapped him or her; and 42.8% swore or cursed at their partner or called them fat, ugly, stupid or some other insult.

Of the 1,084 students with siblings, 256 boys (50.8%) and 351 girls (60.5%) reported that they had physically assaulted a sibling, peer or dating partner.

The authors found a high incidence of overlap between dating violence and peer and sibling violence among boys, with 75% reporting both dating and peer violence and 55.6 reporting dating and sibling violence.

Among the 351 girls who reported perpetrating one form of violence, 44.2% reported physical dating violence, 65.2 reported peer violence and 59.8% reported sibling violence.

"Adolescents who perpetrated physical dating violence were also likely to have perpetrated peer and/or sibling violence," the authors concluded.

The findings were published in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.