How Does Teen Dating Violence Experiences Impact Teen-Parent Communication?

Background and Purpose:Teen dating violence (TDV) is a major social concern which negatively impacts teens’ mental and physical health and is negatively associated with numerous life outcomes. Several studies suggest that many adolescents still value parents' views and seek their assistance on a variety of issues they face.  Parents can play key roles in prevention of teen risk behaviors because of their influence in forming teens’ values or norms, but few studies have explored how teen-parent communication relate specifically to TDV experiences. This study examines the differences in teens who have and have not experienced TDV and their level of open and problem communication with their parents.

Methods: Upon IRB approval, 55 youth (28 males and 27 females) were recruited from five community family agencies in the American southwest. The mean age was 14 and 56% identified as Latino. The 20-item Parent-Adolescent Communication Scale (PACS) was administered to measure parent-adolescent communication levels (10 items for open and 10 for problem communication). Items are assessed on a 5-point Likert scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) was used to measure TDV. We recoded the items on the CTS from continuous level (0-never) to (6 -6 times or more), to dichotomous variables (Yes/ No) if respondent had experienced TDV. Independent samples t-tests were conducted to examine the mean differences in communication levels by TDV experience and mean differences in open and problem communication with mothers, fathers, and mothers and fathers combined.

Results:  Teens with TDV experience (M= 119.23, SD= 24.20) had significantly (t (28)=2.62, p<.05) lower overall communication levels with than teens without TDV experiences (M=142.82, SD=24.58). Teens with TDV experience reported significantly (t (34) =-2.12, p<.05) lower overall communication levels with their mothers (M=61.75, SD=16.53) than those without TDV experience (M=71.95, SD=12.40). Overall communication with fathers was not significantly different for teens with and with no TDV experiences.

Results revealed no significant differences in adolescent open communication levels with mothers, fathers or both parents combined on the open communication scale for teens with TDV and no TDV experiences. However, teens with TDV experiences reported significantly (t (29) =-2.58, <.05) more problematic communication (M=54.69, SD=10.02) than teens with no TDV experience (M=65.83, SD=13.02) with their mothers and fathers combined on the problem communication scale. Also, teens with TDV experience reported significantly (t (35) =-2.04, p<.05) more problematic communication specifically with their mothers (M=27.88, SD=8.05 than those without TDV experience (M=32.85, SD=6.79). However, there were no significant differences in problematic communication specifically with fathers.

Conclusions and Implications: The finding that teens with TDV experience had less overall communication with their mothers, and more problematic communication with their mothers, suggest that once youth are engaged in risky and unhealthy behaviors, communication with their parents, especially their mothers, becomes difficult. Findings support research finding that teens are rarely open with their parents about their TDV experiences. Enhancing teen-parent communication may serve as important tool in preventing and addressing TDV.