Research That Matters (January 17 - 20, 2008)

Purpose: Despite the high risk adolescent mothers face of intimate partner violence (IPV), little is known about the long-term effects of adolescent victimization on adult mental health and economic well-being, key markers in the transition to adulthood. The study reported here uses longitudinal data spanning 15 years to develop typologies of risk based on exposure to IPV in adolescence, and then tests the utility of these typologies by examining their association with long-term mental health and economic outcomes.

Method: This research uses prospective data from a study of 234 adolescent mothers recruited from community settings. The sample used for this study is racially diverse. Adolescent domestic violence is measured using the Conflict Tactics Scale, and is defined as physical abuse or threat of physical abuse from an intimate partner prior to age 18. Mental health symptoms are measured during adulthood using the depression and anxiety subscales from the Brief Symptom Inventory, and reports of the frequency and intensity of alcohol use. Economic insecurity is measured by assessing whether respondents used welfare as their primary means of financial support and whether they are currently employed. Latent class analysis was used to empirically evaluate typologies and ANOVA's were used to assess for differences between groups on outcomes.

Results: Descriptive results show that 67.2% of adolescent mothers reported at least one episode of IPV prior to turning 18. In the first stage of analysis, typologies based on domestic violence exposure were created. The latent class analysis indicated that a 3 group solution was the best fit for the data (BIC = 1305.04, entropy =.81). We characterized the groups as “Low to No Violence,” (49% of the sample) “Battered” (20%) and “At Risk” (31%). These three groups differed significantly on measures of depression, anxiety and alcohol use in early young adulthood, but these differences faded over time. Those in the battered group were most likely to report poor mental health and increased alcohol use compared to the other two groups. Group membership did not affect either welfare use or current employment at any timepoint.

Implications: We identified three groups of adolescent mothers in terms of their exposure to IPV in late adolescence. Of these groups, over half were identified as at risk or battered, indicating that the majority of these adolescent mothers had faced serious intimate partner abuse. Women who were in the battered group entered adulthood with higher levels of mental health symptomatology than their counterparts, and these levels remained higher for several years. However, despite higher levels of mental health distress, no significant differences were found between the groups in terms of economic outcomes at any timepoint. These findings indicate that early exposure to IPV can have significant, long-term consequences for women's psychological well-being.