A daily calendar analysis of substance use and dating violence among high risk urban youth.

BACKGROUND

Dating violence (DV) among youth is an important public health problem. This study examined reasons for physical DV and the association between substance use and youth DV using daily calendar-based analyses among at-risk urban youth.

METHODS

Patients (aged 14-24) presenting to an urban Emergency Department (ED) for a violent injury and a proportionally selected comparison sample of non-violently injured youth who screened positive for substance use in the past 6 months (n=599) were enrolled in this study. Multi-level, multinomial regressions were conducted using daily-level substance use data from Time Line Follow Back (TLFB) responses and physical DV data that were obtained by coding Time Line Follow Back - Aggression Module responses for the 30 days prior to visiting the ED.

RESULTS

The two most commonly reported reasons for physical dating aggression and victimization, across sexes, were "jealousy/rumors" or "angry/bad mood." Multi-level multinomial regression models, adjusting for clustering within individual participants, showed that among females, cocaine use and sedative/opiate use were associated with severe dating victimization and alcohol use was associated with severe dating aggression.

CONCLUSIONS

Use of TLFB data offers a unique opportunity to understand daily-level factors associated with specific incidents of DV in more detail. This study provides novel data regarding reasons for DV and the relationship between daily substance use and DV among urban youth, with alcohol, cocaine, and sedative/opiate use being associated with various types of DV. ED based DV interventions should be tailored to address youths' reasons for DV as well as reducing their substance use.