Peer and Dating Aggression among Early Adolescent Boys and Girls Admitted to a Secure Inpatient Psychiatric Unit: Links with Maltreatment

ABSTRACT

In youth, maladaptive aggression toward peers and romantic partners is a mental health issue associated with significant morbidity, functional impairment and poor outcomes. To date, most research has been focused on community samples although youth with psychiatric disorders are known to be at elevated risk for aggression. This study explores gender differences in rates of aggression prior to admission amongst early adolescents receiving inpatient psychiatric treatment as well as the link between childhood maltreatment and perpetration of peer and dating aggression. Ninety-three early adolescents (55% females, M age = 13.73 years old) from a secure inpatient unit were assessed through the use of self-report questionnaires. Results demonstrated that 87.1% of adolescents reported perpetrating peer aggression and 37.7% reported perpetrating dating aggression. Adolescent girls reported significantly higher rates of perpetrating opposite gender physical peer aggression, same gender relational peer aggression and relational dating aggression. Logistic regression models indicated that exposure to domestic violence, after controlling for delinquency, was significantly linked to physical peer aggression for the entire sample. Sexual abuse was significantly linked to the perpetration of relational dating aggression. Our findings highlight the high rates of peer and dating aggression amongst this sample, specifically amongst the girls, as well as links with prior maltreatment in the family of origin.

KEYWORDS:

• Child maltreatment
• dating aggression
• inpatient
• peer aggression

Disclosure of Interest

The Authors of this study declare that they have no conflicts to report.

Ethical Standards and Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation [institutional and national] and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.