Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7400, USA,
J Youth Adolesc. 2015 Mar;44(3):727-44. doi: 10.1007/s10964-014-0190-z. Epub 2014 Sep 28.
Neighborhood context plays a role in the development of adolescent health risk behaviors, but few studies have investigated the influence of neighborhoods on the perpetration of dating violence. This longitudinal study examined the direct effects of risky neighborhood structural and physical characteristics on trajectories of the perpetration of dating violence, tested whether collective efficacy mediated these relationships, and determined if the effects varied by the sex of the adolescent. Adolescent data are from a multi-wave longitudinal study from grades 8 to 12; neighborhood data were collected from parents' interviews and U.S. Census data. Multilevel growth curve models were conducted with 3,218 students; the sample was 50% male, 41% White, 50% Black, and 9% other race/ethnicity. In models examining risky neighborhood variables one at a time, and controlling for potential individual-level confounders, the sex of the adolescent interacted with economic disadvantage, residential instability, and physical disorder; these risky neighborhood characteristics increased risk for girls' but not boys' perpetrating of dating violence. In full models with all of the risky neighborhood variables, the sex of the adolescent continued to interact with neighborhood economic disadvantage; living in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods increased girls' but not boys' risk for dating violence across all ages. No other risky neighborhood effects were found for boys or girls. Collective efficacy did not mediate the relationships between other neighborhood characteristics and the outcome. These findings suggest that dating violence prevention strategies for girls should consider the contexts in which they live rather than only targeting changes in their individual characteristics.
邻里环境对青少年健康风险行为的发展起着一定作用，但很少有研究调查邻里环境对恋爱暴力行为的影响。本纵向研究考察了危险邻里结构和物理特征对恋爱暴力行为轨迹的直接影响，检验了集体效能是否在这些关系中起中介作用，并确定这些影响是否因青少年的性别而异。青少年数据来自 8 至 12 年级的多波纵向研究；邻里数据来自父母访谈和美国人口普查数据。使用 3218 名学生进行多层次增长曲线模型分析；样本中 50%为男性，41%为白人，50%为黑人，9%为其他种族/民族。在逐个检查危险邻里变量的模型中，并控制潜在的个体水平混杂因素，青少年的性别与经济劣势、居住不稳定和身体紊乱相互作用；这些危险的邻里特征增加了女孩但不是男孩恋爱暴力行为的风险。在包含所有危险邻里变量的完整模型中，青少年的性别继续与邻里经济劣势相互作用；居住在经济劣势社区会增加女孩但不是男孩在所有年龄段的恋爱暴力风险。对于男孩或女孩，没有发现其他危险邻里的影响。集体效能并没有中介其他邻里特征与结果之间的关系。这些发现表明，针对女孩的恋爱暴力预防策略应考虑她们所处的环境，而不仅仅是针对她们个体特征的改变。
