What Goes Around Comes Around: the Loop of Physical Teen Dating Violence Perpetration Among Turkish Adolescents

Abstract

Compared to Western literature, little is known about teen dating violence perpetration (DVP) in Turkey. One risk factor of physical teen DVP may lie within teens' witnessing interparental physical violence perpetration and subsequent accepting attitudes toward physical partner violence as a risk factor. Informed by the intergenerational transmission (IGT) of violence theory, we investigated attitudes toward physical partner violence as a likely mechanism that might account for the association between witnessing interparental physical violence perpetration and physical teen DVP. In a sample of 242 Turkish teens, the prevalence of teen DVP was 32.0% for females and 28.4% for males, with no significant gender difference. The results of the moderated mediation analyses confirmed the hypothesized model for men only. IGT of violence theory offers good guidance in understanding the etiology of physical teen DVP. For prevention practices, accepting attitudes toward physical partner violence seems a hurdle that needs to be breached.