Neighborhood-level factors associated with physical dating violence perpetration: Results of a representative survey conducted in Boston, MA

Neighborhood-level characteristics have been found to be associated with different forms of interpersonal violence, but studies of the relationship between these characteristics and adolescent dating violence are limited. We examined 6 neighborhood-level factors in relation to adolescent physical dating violence perpetration using both adolescent and adult assessments of neighborhood characteristics, each of which was aggregated across respondents to the neighborhood level. Data came from an in-school survey of 1,530 public high school students and a random-digit-dial telephone survey of 1,710 adult residents of 38 neighborhoods in Boston. Approximately 14.3% of the youth sample reported one or more acts of physical aggression toward a dating partner in the month preceding the survey. We calculated the odds of past-month physical dating violence by each neighborhood-level factor, adjusting for school clustering, gender, race, and nativity. In our first 6 models, we used the adolescent assessment of neighborhood factors and then repeated our procedures using the adult assessment data. Using the adolescent assessment data, lower collective efficacy (AOR=1.95, 95% CI= 1.09-3.52), lower social control (AOR=1.92, 95% CI=1.07-3.43), and neighborhood disorder (AOR=1.19, 95% CI=1.05-1.35) were each associated with increased likelihood of physical dating violence perpetration. However, when we used the adult version of the neighborhood assessment data, no neighborhood factor predicted dating violence. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.