Youth intimate partner violence: prevalence, characteristics, associated factors and arenas of violence

ABSTRACT

Internationally, it is established that many youth experience violence within their romantic intimate relationships (youth intimate partner violence, Youth IPV). In Sweden, however, despite a well-developed research field on domestic violence and violence against children, knowledge about the prevalence of Youth IPV remains lacking. Therefore, taking its starting point in a mixed-method study on youth IPV in Sweden, this study presents incidence rates of Youth IPV victimization in a sample of Swedish youth, as well as associated factors to such victimization. Arenas of violence – i.e. settings where the violence takes place – are also addressed. In total, 59.7% (n = 526) of study respondents reported having experienced some form of IPV either once or multiple times. The results suggest gender differences: girls reported higher rates of victimization, especially for multiple experiences of violence. Markers for IPV victimization are presented. It is shown that Youth IPV happens in arenas to which adults have access. Viable markers for victimization are suggested; furthermore, the belief that ‘only at-risk youth experience IPV’ is challenged. It is critical that Youth IPV be considered a social problem in Sweden, deserving of specific attention and interventions. Youth IPV does not happen behind closed doors, but under the same roof as adults who have the obligation to protect them (i.e. parents and school staff) and this offers unique opportunities to respond and help. Further research should investigate the support offered to IPV-exposed youth, thereby shifting the focus to how this social problem is tackled.

KEYWORDS:

• youth intimate partner violence
• dating violence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. There is a lack of common terminology for violence within youth intimate relationships. In North America, the term ‘dating violence’ is commonly used. In Europe it is used to some extent, but it has received some criticism as not applicable outside of North America. This article uses youth intimate partner violence to address and discuss conditions of youthhood, following the WHO definition of ‘youth’ as individuals age 15 to 24.

2. Following the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), we define intimate partner violence (IPV) as: ‘physical violence, sexual violence, stalking and psychological aggression (including coercive tactics) by a current or former intimate partner (i.e. spouse, boyfriend/ girlfriend, dating partner, or ongoing sexual partner)’ (Breiding, Basile, and Smith et al. 2015, 11).

3. ‘Arenas’ refer to the physical places where violence occurs, such as home, school or a club.

4. For example, the notion of cultural factors have been addressed as potentially affecting what expressions of violence are culturally accepted or not, e.g. mild expressions of violence may be more tolerated and not defined as violence in some countries, but unacceptable in others (Viejo 2014). The societal view on punishments of violence perpetration etc. can also contribute to this notion, which may affect reported prevalence rates (Lysova and Douglas 2008)

5. The project is funded by the Swedish Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority.

6. In Sweden, research participants who are at least 15 years of age, and who understand the research objectives, can give their informed consent without parental involvement (The Act concerning the Ethical Review of Research Involving Humans, SFS 2003:460). Since all informants were 15 years of age or older, no parents had to give their consent.

7. We would like to thank Dr Christine Barter, principal investigator in the STIR study.

8. Multicollinearity was controlled using Pearson’s r. The strongest correlation between independent variables in the models is between female gender and generally having older partners (r = 0.430). Following Tabachnick and Fidell (2001), the boundary for multicollinearity was set to about >0.700.

9. See, for example, https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/tystiklassen-nu-gor-eleverna-uppror-mot-sexuella-trakasserier-i-skolan

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the The Swedish Crime Victim Authority.