Dating violence of two high school samples: Discriminating variables

Given that dating violence is a serious problem for adolescents, research is needed to inform dating violence prevention programs which often target correlates of violence. The current two studies examined the multivariate correlates of dating violence in two high schools. The Riggs and O'Leary (1989) model of courtship aggression was used to select a number of variables that are most amenable to change through prevention and intervention strategies. Multivariate analyses, although showing similar discriminating variables for males and females, yielded slightly different patterns of predictors of male and female dating violence. The results have implications for the development of examination of sex differences in dating violence.