Longitudinal Trajectories of Physical Teen Dating Perpetration and Trait Anger Expression: A Group-Based Trajectory Approach

Dating violence is often perpetrated among adolescents, which increases the efforts to better understand individual risk factors for preventive efforts. Although multiple forms (i.e., physical and psychological) often coexist, few studies have studied the chronicity and developmental classes of physical teen dating violence and examined whether subtypes of trait anger predict teen dating perpetration over time. Thus, the purpose of the current study is to investigate: (a) the developmental group-based patterns of physical teen dating violence; and (b) whether subtypes of trait anger expression predict association in these classes using the Bullying, Sexual, and Dating Violence Trajectories from Early to Late Adolescence in the Midwestern United States, 2007 to 2013 dataset. Group-based trajectory modeling results identified four classes of teen dating violence perpetration (e.g., Accelerating, Abstaining, Desisting, and High Chronic). Multinomial logistic regression results indicated that expressing anger outwardly was positively associated with Desisting and High Chronic patterns, but not Accelerating patterns. These results suggest that there are four classes of teen dating violence perpetration and underscore the effects of expression of trait anger as a risk factor of teen dating violence perpetration. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.