Edited by: Ilaria Grazzani, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy
Reviewed by: Emanuela Confalonieri, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Italy; Jennifer Yahner, Urban Institute, United States
This article was submitted to Developmental Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Teen dating violence (TDV) victimization is a traumatic experience that can have adverse consequences for adolescents. Current measures that assess TDV do not fully distinguish between psychological and relational forms of aggression, nor do they capture aggressive acts that are common within adolescent relationships. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Teen Dating Aggression Measure (TeDAM) using a sample of 730 Canadian adolescents (
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Adolescence represents a developmental period marked by increased interest and involvement in extrafamilial romantic relationships with same or other-gender partners (
Teen dating violence is conceptually similar to IPV observed among adult populations (
In general, victimization resulting from TDV is linked to various negative outcomes. For example, experiencing physical or verbal TDV is associated with recent alcohol and marijuana use (e.g.,
Currently, there are several measures that assess TDV, each of which evaluate different aspects of teen dating perpetration and victimization (see
In adolescence, relationally and psychologically aggressive acts are common among teen dating partners relative to physical aggression (e.g.,
Second, adolescent-based measures of TDV tend to have poor psychometric properties. For example, the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory (CADRI) is a widely used instrument to measure teen dating perpetration and victimization and has been validated in many countries, including Canada, the United States, Spain, Mexico, among others (
The Measure of Adolescent Relationship Harassment and Abuse (MARSHA) is a recent and comprehensive instrument that aims to evaluate different aspects of TDV perpetration (i.e., social control, physical abuse, sexual abuse, isolation, cyber control, intimidation) and victimization (i.e., privacy control, social control, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and intimidation (
Previous reviews have addressed several gaps in extant TDV measurements (
The present study had three main objectives. First, we sought to extend the CADRI measure to include typical everyday actions and behaviors that could be experienced by adolescents who have been in a romantic relationship. Our second objective was to replicate the multidimensionality of TDV as observed in the other measures using exploratory and confirmatory factor analytical approaches. Finally, we aimed to establish concurrent validity with this measure using participants’ ratings of alcohol overconsumption, cannabis use, and rape myth acceptance views as outcome variables.
A total of 730 adolescents between grades 7 and 12 were recruited from high schools in three provinces (i.e., Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba) in Canada (
Demographic information of samples.
Sample 1 | Sample 2 | Total sample | |
353 | 377 | 730 | |
Age |
15.89 (1.23) | 15.89 (1.29) | 15.89 (1.26) |
Woman | 63.7% | 62.3% | 63.0% |
Man | 34.8% | 34.7% | 34.8% |
Non-Binary | 0.6% | 1.6% | 1.1% |
No answer | 0.8% | 1.3% | 1.1% |
7 | 0% | 0.3% | 0.1% |
8 | 0% | 0.8% | 0.4% |
9 | 26.9% | 26.5% | 26.7% |
10 | 27.5% | 26.3% | 26.8% |
11 | 26.9% | 26.8% | 26.8% |
12 | 17.6% | 17.5% | 17.5% |
No answer | 1.1% | 1.9% | 1.5% |
African/Caribbean | 8.2% | 11.9% | 10.1% |
East Asian | 6.5% | 4.0% | 5.2% |
First Nations | 4.8% | 6.4% | 5.6% |
Inuit | 0% | 0.5% | 0.3% |
Latin American | 1.4% | 2.4% | 1.9% |
Métis | 2.0% | 3.2% | 2.6% |
Middle Eastern/West Asian | 3.4% | 3.7% | 3.6% |
South Asian | 6.2% | 5.8% | 6.0% |
Southeast Asian | 12.5% | 15.9% | 14.2% |
White/European | 50.1% | 48.0% | 49.0% |
Different | 6.2% | 6.9% | 6.6% |
No answer | 14.4% | 12.2% | 13.3% |
Yes | 7.6% | 9.3% | 8.5% |
No | 90.9% | 87.8% | 89.3% |
No answer | 1.4% | 2.9% | 2.2% |
Ethical approval was obtained from each of the relevant research ethics bodies at the universities and local school boards. The research team first visited each participating school to explain the purpose of the study and administer consent forms. Once a signed guardian consent form was returned, students were asked to provide assent to participate in the study. During the study, participants responded to various questionnaires that lasted approximately 1 h.
We modified the original CADRI to capture adolescent dating violence more adequately and to expand upon the types of violence assessed. Our modification included combining the two items assessing sexual violence to address potential concerns by schools and their respective boards, i.e., “Forced me to have sex with them when I didn’t want to” and “Touched me sexually when I didn’t want them to” were combined into one broad item: “Forced me to do something sexual that I didn’t want to do.” After the original CADRI items, 20 new statements were added that describe additional forms of violence such as coercion (e.g., “Kept pressuring me to do something even after I made it clear that I did not want to”) and control (e.g., “Made me let them read my emails or texts when I didn’t want them to”). For each of the 44 items on the adapted scale, participants rated how often the behavior occurred with a dating partner over the past three months using a Likert scale from 0 (“
Participants were asked to rate 10 items that assessed how much they agreed with statements regarding rape myths (RMA) on 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (“
Participants were asked to assess how often they used cannabis or marijuana using a 6-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (“
The analytical plan followed five steps. First, we split the sample using complex sampling procedures (described below). Second, descriptive correlations and inter-item correlations were computed in SPSS to evaluate normality of the data. Third, an EFA of the first sample was conducted. Fourth, CFA to verify the factor structure that was derived from the EFA with the second sample. Finally, bivariate correlations were conducted to examine the associations among the scales and with adolescent rape myth acceptance, and cannabis and alcohol consumption. The EFA and CFA were analyzed with M
In order to examine the factor structure and provide validation, complex random sampling in SPSS was used to split the main sample into two groups. Three strata were used to randomly assign participants into one of the two samples: (a) gender identity, (b) grade level, and (c) previous experience with relationship violence. Sample 1 (S1) was comprised of 353 participants (63.7% female) and Sample 2 (S2) included 377 participants (62.3% female).
Descriptive statistics including skewness and kurtosis were calculated for each item in both samples (see
Descriptive statistics of items.
Sample 1 |
Sample 2 |
|||||
Item | Skewness | Kurtosis | Skewness | Kurtosis | ||
1. Tried to turn my friends against me. | 1.14 (0.52) | 4.827 | 26.266 | 1.08 (0.41) | 6.704 | 52.934 |
2. Said or did something just to make me feel jealous. | 1.47 (0.93) | 2.280 | 4.754 | 1.30 (0.75) | 3.097 | 10.439 |
3. Destroyed or threatened to destroy something I valued. | 1.06 (0.33) | 7.601 | 71.641 | 1.08 (0.46) | 6.952 | 51.593 |
4. Brought up something bad I had done in the past. | 1.37 (0.81) | 2.605 | 7.068 | 1.32 (0.82) | 2.982 | 8.684 |
5. Threw something at me. | 1.06 (0.29) | 4.925 | 25.558 | 1.06 (0.39) | 8.034 | 69.774 |
6. Said or did something just to make me angry. | 1.43 (0.88) | 2.249 | 4.582 | 1.30 (0.79) | 3.210 | 10.647 |
7. Spoke to me in a hostile or mean tone of voice. | 1.31 (0.79) | 2.963 | 8.701 | 1.23 (0.73) | 3.869 | 15.505 |
8. Forced me to do something sexual that I didn’t want to. | 1.10 (0.48) | 5.798 | 37.403 | 1.11 (0.48) | 5.903 | 39.534 |
9. Threatened me to get me to do something sexual with him/her. | 1.06 (0.38) | 8.290 | 75.200 | 1.03 (0.27) | 9.238 | 89.141 |
10. Insulted me. | 1.31 (0.74) | 2.879 | 8.722 | 1.24 (0.71) | 3.390 | 11.834 |
11. Kissed me when I didn’t want him/her to. | 1.12 (0.52) | 5.028 | 27.856 | 1.11 (0.50) | 5.357 | 31.206 |
12. Said things to my friends about me to turn them against me. | 1.10 (0.48) | 5.628 | 35.374 | 1.07 (0.36) | 6.800 | 55.719 |
13. Ridiculed or made fun of me in front of other people. | 1.15 (0.50) | 4.269 | 20.880 | 1.15 (0.58) | 5.007 | 27.423 |
14. Kept track of who I was with and where I was. | 1.46 (1.03) | 2.419 | 4.908 | 1.32 (0.91) | 3.244 | 9.749 |
15. Blamed me for a problem or fight we were having. | 1.39 (0.90) | 2.784 | 7.463 | 1.33 (0.84) | 3.139 | 9.986 |
16. Kicked, hit, or punched me. | 1.06 (0.33) | 7.636 | 72.293 | 1.04 (0.27) | 8.701 | 83.428 |
17. Accused me of flirting with someone else. | 1.38 (0.89) | 2.768 | 7.410 | 1.27 (0.76) | 3.393 | 11.855 |
18. Tried to frighten me on purpose. | 1.11 (0.46) | 5.005 | 28.453 | 1.10 (0.48) | 5.724 | 35.086 |
19. Slapped me or pulled my hair. | 1.10 (0.43) | 6.212 | 46.008 | 1.06 (0.35) | 6.710 | 47.969 |
20. Threatened to hurt me. | 1.04 (0.26) | 7.739 | 68.247 | 1.04 (0.32) | 9.080 | 92.644 |
21. Threatened to break up with me or end our friendship. | 1.15 (0.52) | 4.866 | 28.858 | 1.16 (0.64) | 4.757 | 23.674 |
22. Threatened to hit or throw something at me. | 1.03 (0.25) | 10.331 | 115.005 | 1.03 (0.27) | 10.823 | 135.353 |
23. Pushed, shoved, grabbed, or shook me. | 1.07 (0.32) | 6.146 | 44.956 | 1.08 (0.38) | 5.768 | 41.353 |
24. Spread rumors about me. | 1.11 (0.51) | 5.754 | 35.926 | 1.11 (0.43) | 4.357 | 19.650 |
25. Screamed or yelled at me. | 1.18 (0.60) | 4.298 | 21.027 | 1.16 (0.60) | 4.648 | 23.063 |
26. Said mean things to me. | 1.31 (0.75) | 2.893 | 8.835 | 1.27 (0.77) | 3.617 | 13.527 |
27. Left me out of an activity or a social group on purpose. | 1.11 (0.46) | 5.836 | 39.436 | 1.12 (0.51) | 5.596 | 34.564 |
28. Told me that he/she would break up with me or end our friendship if I did not do something he/she wanted. | 1.11 (0.53) | 5.827 | 36.527 | 1.16 (0.60) | 5.407 | 29.007 |
29. Said means things about me to other people. | 1.12 (0.48) | 5.401 | 34.067 | 1.27 (0.77) | 4.386 | 20.275 |
30. Talked about how other people were better or more fun than me. | 1.15 (0.58) | 4.911 | 26.171 | 1.14 (0.57) | 4.737 | 24.246 |
31. Told me that other people didn’t like me. | 1.16 (0.59) | 4.458 | 21.801 | 1.13 (0.51) | 4.749 | 25.825 |
32. Told me that I was not a good boyfriend/girlfriend or friend. | 1.13 (0.51) | 5.025 | 29.018 | 1.16 (0.62) | 4.759 | 23.904 |
33. Gave me the silent treatment. | 1.35 (0.76) | 2.489 | 6.015 | 1.31 (0.78) | 3.051 | 9.504 |
34. Got upset when I spent time with other people. | 1.48 (1.01) | 2.280 | 4.387 | 1.31 (0.82) | 3.208 | 10.342 |
35. Said mean things to me about someone else who is important to me. | 1.25 (0.73) | 3.393 | 11.941 | 1.22 (0.72) | 3.958 | 16.238 |
36. Got upset when I did really well on something. | 1.09 (0.43) | 6.006 | 39.999 | 1.05 (0.35) | 9.136 | 95.263 |
37. Told me that I needed to spend more time with him/her. | 1.47 (1.04) | 2.321 | 4.374 | 1.33 (0.81) | 3.023 | 9.474 |
38. Made me let them read my e-mails or texts when I didn’t want them to. | 1.18 (0.65) | 4.132 | 17.189 | 1.11 (0.56) | 5.937 | 36.925 |
39. Made me do something I really didn’t want to do. | 1.13 (0.55) | 5.237 | 30.363 | 1.11 (0.52) | 5.966 | 38.681 |
40. Was mean to me or insulted me to get me to do something for him/her. | 1.10 (0.49) | 5.958 | 38.831 | 1.09 (0.51) | 6.746 | 47.175 |
41. Got mad at me when I said “no” to him/her about something. | 1.25 (0.75) | 3.525 | 12.582 | 1.20 (0.64) | 4.214 | 19.880 |
42. Threatened me to try to get me to do something he/she wanted me to do. | 1.10 (0.52) | 6.180 | 40.223 | 1.07 (0.42) | 7.353 | 58.502 |
43. Insulted me or said mean things to me when I said “no” to him/her about doing something. | 1.14 (0.61) | 5.129 | 27.284 | 1.09 (0.51) | 6.593 | 46.002 |
44. Kept pressuring me to do something even after I made it clear that I did not want to. | 1.22 (0.75) | 3.762 | 13.993 | 1.17 (0.65) | 4.734 | 23.186 |
An EFA was conducted on the first sample using the weighted least squares mean and variance adjusted (WLSMV) estimator and the geomin oblique rotation (epsilon = 0.50). Using the eigenvalue-greater-than-1 rule (
Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) model fit indices for the factor structure of the Teen Dating Aggression Measure (TeDAM).
Chi-Square test of model fit |
|||||||||||||
Solution | Eigenvalue | Δ | χ2 | RMSEA | Δ | CFI | Δ | TLI | Δ | SRMR | Δ | ||
1-Factor | 25.46 | 0.71 | 1109.419 | 740 | <0.001 | 0.038 | – | 0.972 | – | 0.971 | – | 0.112 | – |
2-Factor | 3.051 | 0.08 | 897.463 | 701 | <0.001 | 0.028 | 0.010 | 0.985 | 0.013 | 0.984 | 0.013 | 0.082 | 0.03 |
3-Factor | 2.052 | 0.06 | 774.471 | 663 | 0.002 | 0.022 | 0.006 | 0.992 | 0.007 | 0.99 | 0.006 | 0.068 | 0.014 |
4-Factor | 1.625 | 0.05 | 697.42 | 626 | 0.025 | 0.018 | 0.004 | 0.995 | 0.003 | 0.993 | 0.003 | 0.057 | 0.011 |
5-Factor | 1.124 | 0.03 | 638.449 | 590 | 0.082 | 0.015 | 0.003 | 0.996 | 0.001 | 0.995 | 0.002 | 0.052 | 0.005 |
6-Factor | 1.064 | 0.03 | 579.466 | 555 | 0.229 | 0.011 | 0.004 | 0.998 | 0.002 | 0.997 | 0.002 | 0.047 | 0.005 |
7-Factor | 0.899 | 0.02 | 530.392 | 521 | 0.378 | 0.007 | 0.004 | 0.999 | 0.001 | 0.999 | 0.002 | 0.043 | 0.004 |
Upon examination of change in model fit as well as considering the overall conceptualization of the factors, a 3-factor solution appeared to be the best fitting model (see
Further investigation of the items showed that three items closely cross-loaded (difference between 0.02 and 0.06) onto two factors and did not quantitatively or conceptually fit with the factor in which it strongly loaded (discussed next). The three items were: (a) “Ridiculed or made fun of me in front of other people”; (b) “Told me that he/she would break up with me if I did not do something he/she wanted”; and (c) “Insulted me or said mean things to me when I said ‘no’ to him/her about doing something.” Thus, we removed the items and reanalyzed the EFA, which still supported a 3-factor solution.
Standardized factor loadings and descriptive statistics for the 3-factor solution of the Teen Dating Aggression Measure (TeDAM).
3-Factor solution |
|||
Item | F1 | F2 | F3 |
1. Tried to turn my friends against me. | 0.37 |
||
2. Said or did something just to make me feel jealous. | 0.58 |
||
3. Destroyed or threatened to destroy something I valued. | 0.77 |
||
4. Brought up something bad I had done in the past. | 0.74 |
||
6. Said or did something just to make me angry. | 0.71 |
||
7. Spoke to me in a hostile or mean tone of voice. | 0.63 |
0.38 |
|
10. Insulted me. | 0.64 |
||
14. Kept track of who I was with and where I was. | 0.76 |
||
15. Blamed me for a problem or fight we were having. | 0.64 |
0.40 |
|
17. Accused me of flirting with someone else. | 0.82 |
||
25. Screamed or yelled at me. | 0.62 |
||
26. Said mean things to me. | 0.52 |
0.46 |
|
33. Gave me the silent treatment. | 0.54 |
||
34. Got upset when I spent time with other people. | 0.72 |
||
35. Said mean things to me about someone else who is important to me. | 0.42 |
0.34 |
|
37. Told me that I needed to spend more time with him/her. | 0.59 |
0.45 |
|
38. Made me let them read my e-mails or texts when I didn’t want them to. | 0.65 |
0.43 |
|
5. Threw something at me. | 0.42 |
||
8. Forced me to do something sexual that I didn’t want to. | 0.80 |
||
9. Threatened me to get me to do something sexual with him/her. | 0.82 |
||
11. Kissed me when I didn’t want him/her to. | 0.45 |
0.61 |
|
16. Kicked, hit, or punched me. | 0.74 |
||
19. Slapped me or pulled my hair. | 0.61 |
||
20. Threatened to hurt me. | 0.64 |
0.34 |
|
22. Threatened to hit or throw something at me. | 0.86 |
||
23. Pushed, shoved, grabbed, or shook me. | 0.87 |
||
39. Made me do something I really didn’t want to do. | 0.58 |
||
40. Was mean to me or insulted me to get me to do something for him/her. | 0.67 |
0.40 |
|
41. Got mad at me when I said “no” to him/her about something. | 0.33 |
0.56 |
|
42. Threatened me to try to get me to do something he/she wanted me to do. | 0.65 |
0.41 |
|
44. Kept pressuring me to do something even after I made it clear that I did not want to. | 0.67 |
||
12. Said things to my friends about me to turn them against me. | 0.65 |
||
21. Threatened to break up with me or end our friendship. | 0.39 |
0.65 |
|
24. Spread rumors about me. | 0.86 |
||
27. Left me out of an activity or a social group on purpose. | 0.83 |
||
29. Said means things about me to other people. | 0.86 |
||
30. Talked about how other people were better or more fun than me. | 0.53 |
||
31. Told me that other people didn’t like me. | 0.65 |
||
32. Told me that I was not a good boyfriend/girlfriend | 0.63 |
||
36. Got upset when I did really well on something. | 0.38 |
0.62 |
The first factor was comprised of 17 items, with standardized loadings ranging from 0.37 to 0.82. These items appear to reflect a psychological or manipulative form of aggression perpetrated to victims. Example items include, “gave me the silent treatment,” “insulted me,” “brought up something bad I had done in the past,” and “accused me of flirting with someone else.” The Cronbach’s alpha for this scale was 0.94.
In the second factor, the standardized loadings of 14 items (factor loadings ranging between 0.42 and 0.87) suggest overt physical and sexual aggression acts committed toward a victim. Example items within this factor include, “threw something at me,” “threatened to hurt me,” “kicked, hit, or punched me,” and “kissed me when I didn’t want him/her to.” Cronbach’s alpha was 0.89.
In this last factor, 9 items with standardized loadings ranging between 0.53 and 0.86 reflect an indirectly applied form of relational aggression. In particular, the items reflected behaviors that a partner may do or say to others about a victim. Unlike the first factor that focused on psychological aggression targeted toward a victim, the items on this scale generally involved behaviors that implicated other individuals, such as a victims’ friends. Some examples from this scale include, “talked about how other people were better or more fun than me,” “left me out of an activity or social group on purpose,” “spread rumors about me,” and “said mean things about me to other people.” Cronbach’s alpha for this scale was 0.91.
Three separate CFAs were conducted with the second sample to compare a 3-factor model with a 2-factor model and 1-factor model, respectively. Given the use of the WLSMV estimator, the DIFFTEST function was employed using the 3-factor model as the initial comparison against the 2-factor and 1-factor models. In comparison to the 3-factor model, the 2-factor and 1-factor models each had statistically significant worse fit (all
Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) model fit for the factor structure of the Teen Dating Aggression Measure (TeDAM).
Chi-Square test of model fit |
Chi-Square for difference test |
|||||||||||||
Solution | χ2 | RMSEA | Δ | CFI | Δ | TLI | Δ | WRMR | Δ | χ2 | ||||
3-Factor | 1611.267 | 737 | <0.001 | 0.057 | 0.000 | 0.941 | 0.001 | 0.938 | 0.002 | 1.588 | 0.019 | – | – | – |
2-Factor | 1633.886 | 739 | <0.001 | 0.057 | 0.000 | 0.940 | 0.001 | 0.936 | 0.000 | 1.607 | 0.009 | 36.069 | 2 | <0.001 |
1-Factor | 1644.878 | 740 | <0.001 | 0.057 | – | 0.939 | – | 0.936 | – | 1.616 | – | 42.621 | 3 | <0.001 |
Confirmatory factor analysis standardized loadings and omega reliability estimates (ω).
3-Factor solution |
||||
Item | ω | F1 | F2 | F3 |
0.98 | ||||
1. Tried to turn my friends against me. | 0.85 |
|||
2. Said or did something just to make me feel jealous. | 0.84 |
|||
3. Destroyed or threatened to destroy something I valued. | 0.89 |
|||
4. Brought up something bad I had done in the past. | 0.86 |
|||
6. Said or did something just to make me angry. | 0.89 |
|||
7. Spoke to me in a hostile or mean tone of voice. | 0.89 |
|||
10. Insulted me. | 0.82 |
|||
14. Kept track of who I was with and where I was. | 0.80 |
|||
15. Blamed me for a problem or fight we were having. | 0.89 |
|||
17. Accused me of flirting with someone else. | 0.82 |
|||
25. Screamed or yelled at me. | 0.86 |
|||
26. Said mean things to me. | 0.92 |
|||
33. Gave me the silent treatment. | 0.84 |
|||
34. Got upset when I spent time with other people. | 0.90 |
|||
35. Said mean things to me about someone else who is important to me. | 0.84 |
|||
37. Told me that I needed to spend more time with him/her. | 0.78 |
|||
38. Made me let them read my e-mails or texts when I didn’t want them to. | 0.89 |
|||
0.98 | ||||
5. Threw something at me. | 0.73 |
|||
8. Forced me to do something sexual that I didn’t want to. | 0.87 |
|||
9. Threatened me to get me to do something sexual with him/her. | 0.78 |
|||
11. Kissed me when I didn’t want him/her to. | 0.77 |
|||
16. Kicked, hit, or punched me. | 0.77 |
|||
19. Slapped me or pulled my hair. | 0.90 |
|||
20. Threatened to hurt me. | 0.87 |
|||
22. Threatened to hit or throw something at me. | 0.85 |
|||
23. Pushed, shoved, grabbed, or shook me. | 0.87 |
|||
39. Made me do something I really didn’t want to do. | 0.95 |
|||
40. Was mean to me or insulted me to get me to do something for him/her. | 0.97 |
|||
41. Got mad at me when I said “no” to him/her about something. | 0.91 |
|||
42. Threatened me to try to get me to do something he/she wanted me to do. | 0.95 |
|||
44. Kept pressuring me to do something even after I made it clear that I did not want to. | 0.91 |
|||
0.96 | ||||
12. Said things to my friends about me to turn them against me. | 0.82 |
|||
21. Threatened to break up with me or end our friendship. | 0.84 |
|||
24. Spread rumors about me. | 0.88 |
|||
27. Left me out of an activity or a social group on purpose. | 0.62 |
|||
29. Said means things about me to other people. | 0.86 |
|||
30. Talked about how other people were better or more fun than me. | 0.84 |
|||
31. Told me that other people didn’t like me. | 0.94 |
|||
32. Told me that I was not a good boyfriend/girlfriend | 0.91 |
|||
36. Got upset when I did really well on something. | 0.80 |
Scores for each of the three dimensions were aggregated for each of the three scales and then compared as a function of participant gender identity and grade level. A one-way MANOVA with the three scores as the dependent variables did not yield a statistically significant multivariate effect of gender identity for Sample 1, Wilk’s λ = 0.97,
In the last analysis, we tested concurrent associations between the TeDAM, perceptions of rape myths acceptance, cannabis use, and alcohol consumption (see
Descriptive statistics of study variables for the overall sample.
Variable | Minimum | Maximum | |
Psychological aggression | 1.29 (0.56) | 1.00 | 4.28 |
Physical, sexual aggression | 1.10 (0.32) | 1.00 | 4.41 |
Relational aggression | 1.12 (0.38) | 1.00 | 4.89 |
Cannabis use | 1.48 (1.06) | 1.00 | 6.00 |
Alcohol overconsumption | 1.22 (0.64) | 1.00 | 6.00 |
Traditional gender expectations | 3.82 (1.40) | 3.00 | 12.00 |
Rape denial | 16.00 (6.80) | 4.00 | 16.00 |
Bivariate correlations between Teen Dating Aggression Measure (TeDAM) scales and outcome variables.
Cannabis use | Alcohol overconsumption | RMA—Traditional gender expectations | RMA rape denial | |
Psychological aggression | 0.28 |
0.17 |
0.02 (–0.06 to 0.16) | 0.10 |
Physical, sexual aggression | 0.21 |
0.12 |
0.03 (–0.10 to –0.21) | 0.11 |
Relational aggression | 0.23 |
0.17 |
0.02 (–0.09 to –0.17) | 0.08 |
Findings from this study provide initial psychometric support for the TeDAM and its use among adolescents. Specifically, factor analyses for the TeDAM suggested that a solution that included three factors, namely behaviors regarding (a) psychological aggression, (b) physical and sexual aggression, and (c) relational aggression, were most appropriate. This factor structure was further supported in a CFA and high reliability estimates.
Each of the factors represented the various ways in which adolescents might experience dating aggression. The first factor, physical and sexual aggression, is common among all measures within the TDV literature. In line with other measures of dating violence victimization, including the CADRI (
There were three findings related to the validation of the measure. First, we found that each of the three factors was associated with adolescent cannabis use and the overconsumption of alcohol. Specifically, more frequent experiences with each of the three aggressive factors were associated with increased use of cannabis and drinking. These findings are in line with previous work that suggests that cannabis and alcohol are associated with victimization from TDV and assault (e.g.,
Broadly, the strengths of the TeDAM include the support for a scale on relational aggression. This addition is important because it incorporates the typical actions and behaviors that adolescents engage in with their peers as well as their romantic partners, thus making the measure more developmentally relevant. From a measurement perspective, the TeDAM is also straightforward to use, easy to score, and has strong reliability and validity. Nevertheless, this study acknowledges some limitations. First, although the large sample was obtained from three different provinces across Canada, these were not nationally representative, therefore we could not test for sociodemographic differences (e.g., ethnicity). Second, although our sample size was large enough to assess the factor structure of this measure, we were unable to fully evaluate the psychometric properties using measurement invariance, which would address the extent to which the items were interpreted in a similar manner across different groups. As such, replication of the factor structures and an analysis of the equivalence across sex, gender identity, and previous experiences with relationship violence would benefit the utility of the TeDAM. Finally, the present study was focused on dating victimization experiences of youth. However, it is also necessary to consider the extent to which dating partners perpetrate such acts. Given that the additional items were written similarly to the CADRI, we argue that the target of scale can change between the victim to the perpetrator, which would be in line with other measures, including the CADRI (
In summary, the goal of this study was to create an assessment of TDV that was designed to reflect the adolescent experience and include relevant forms of TDV. This measure begins to address the gaps in extant TDV measures by including items related to overt sexual violence, psychological aggression, and relationally aggressive behaviors. Results provided initial psychometric support for a developmentally relevant assessment of adolescent aggressive experiences in the context of romantic relationships. Given both the short- and long-term consequences of victimization from dating violence, there are meaningful implications for researchers, as this could provide more authentic findings when investigating the phenomenon of TDV, as well as have important implications for practitioners (e.g., clinicians) looking to obtain a more comprehensive view of the experiences of TDV victimization among the youth they service. Together, with further development and implementation of the TeDAM, this study has crucial theoretical implications as it could help increase our understanding in the field of TDV.
The datasets presented in this article are not readily available because there are ethical and consent restrictions that do not allow for the release of data outside of the research team. Requests to access the datasets should be directed to WC, wendy.craig@queensu.ca.
The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by 1. Research Ethics Board Office (McGill University) #20-07-044 - Research Ethics, 2. General Research Ethics Board (Queen’s University) #GPSYC-997-20. Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin.
WC, MD, AM-S, and CK conceptualized and designed the larger study which includes this study. ND coordinated data collection as well as cleaned the data. For this manuscript, RP, TW, LV-M, and CK contributed to the conceptualization and plan. RP organized the data. RP and LV-M conducted the statistical analyses. RP wrote the first draft of the manuscript. TW, LV-M, and ND wrote sections of the manuscript. CK oversaw the manuscript writing throughout the process. All authors contributed to manuscript revision, read, and approved the submitted version.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
This research was supported by a grant from the Public Health Agency of Canada (1718-HQ-000788) awarded to WC.