When Is Teasing Abuse? Associations of Observed Teasing with Cultural Values and Teen Dating Violence Among Mexican American Couples

Background and Purpose: Partner violence often takes place within “joking” contexts. Recent studies, including with the commonly utilized Conflict Tactics Scale, have added “not joking” stems to omit what may be considered false positives. Such studies raise questions regarding when joking should be considered abusive, particularly as intent might differ from actual impact. Teasing is especially common during adolescence and can range from light flirting to physical boundary testing. Research on the prevalence and contexts of teasing as it intersects with teen dating violence (TDV) within the presence of other unique cultural contexts (e.g., machismo, familismo) among Mexican American (MA) youth is needed. The present study explored the extent and severity of teasing within observed couple interactions, as well as the associations with MA youth’s self-report cultural values, conflict styles, and TDV behaviors.

Methods: Thirty-four MA dating couples aged 15-17 years old (M dating length = 11.71 months) from an urban city in a Southwest border state completed an online survey and a video-taped interaction task in which couples discussed two relationship problems for 14 minutes. Youth reported dating violence victimization and perpetration within the past year (CADRI), and cultural values (machismo, familismo). We used the System for Coding Interactions in Dyads (SCID) to code observed conflict interaction styles. An additional coding system was created to capture prevalence, severity, and contexts of teasing as verbal (e.g., “you have girl handwriting”) and/or physical (e.g., hitting partners arm with force). Each interaction was coded for number of instances and gendered initiation of teasing, which were then ranked as 1 (“mild”, flirtatious verbal or physical probe with partner responding with laughter), 2 (“moderate”, mixed intention, partner reacts seriously/not finding it funny), or 3 (“high”, derogatory language or physical force used).

Results: Over half of couples (62.5%) engaged in mutual teasing; teasing was more likely to be initiated by females (53.10%; males, 25.00%). Couples demonstrated an average of 5 teasing incidents per interaction (m=3 verbal, m=2 physical), and an average maximum severity of 1.91 (moderate; SD=1.03). Endorsement of machismo but not familismo predicted greater likelihood of male-dominated teasing in a logistic regression. The number of teasing incidents, observed negative (i.e., coercion, negativity), and observed positive (i.e., cheerful, playful affect) conflict styles predicted couples’ severity of teasing in a linear regression. Couples that utilized more severe forms of teasing reported higher victimization across emotional, physical, and sexual dating violence.

Conclusions and Implications: Studies such at this are needed to better understand the verbal and non-verbal contexts of teasing as influenced by cultural values within a risk and protective framework for TDV. This study finds that teasing takes place within contexts marked by multiple and fluctuating conflict negotiation styles and moods. Youth are holding robust conversations about conflict issues; however, many may need support to communicate in a healthy way. Findings further suggest that cultural values play an important role in the nuanced dynamics of couples’ teasing interactions, laying groundwork for future research. Implications for a clearly conceptualized and validated measurement of teasing is critical.