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Stemming intimate partner violence among adults demands earlier education and skill-building supportive of healthy youth and young adult dating relationships. The current U.S.-based study examines a spectrum of youth and young adult relationship dynamics (RDs), inclusive of abusive interactions. In a nationally representative cohort of youth aged 10–18 at baseline and one parent or caregiver, survey responses regarding RDs from 618 participants ages 15–23 at wave 5 follow-up were analyzed. Latent class analysis of four positive dynamics, six problematic dynamics, and three scales of adolescent relationship abuse (ARA) were estimated, yielding four latent profiles of dating RDs. Relationships characterized by Unhealthy and Intense RDs both exhibited high probability of ARA but differed from each other in terms of other positive and problematic dynamics. Relationships characterized by Disengaged RDs had lower probability of ARA but elevated probability of awkward communications, negative feelings, social liability, and other challenging dynamics. Several baseline covariates were significantly associated with profiles of dating RDs approximately 5 years later. Younger participants were more likely to subsequently fall in an Intense or Disengaged RDs profile, as were participants with baseline emotional health problems. Further, classification in the Unhealthy RDs profile was less likely for participants reporting a better baseline relationship with their parents and more likely for those exposed to violence in childhood. These findings suggest that in addition to developmental maturity, youth and young adults would benefit from closer investigation and processing of past emotional and relational issues and traumas to foster healthier dating relationships.

Background: The health belief model suggests that individuals' beliefs affect behaviors associated with health. This study examined whether Ohioans' pre-existing medical health diagnoses affected their belief about personal health risk and their compliance with social distancing during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Prior research examining physical and mental diagnoses and social distancing compliance is nearly nonexistent. We examined whether physical and mental health diagnoses influenced individuals' beliefs that their health is at risk and their adherence with social distancing guidelines. Methods: The study used longitudinal cohort data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) (n = 790), which surveyed Ohioans prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dependent variables included belief that an individual's own health was at risk and social distancing compliance. Independent variables included physical and mental health diagnoses, pandemic-related factors (fear of COVID-19, political beliefs about the pandemic, friends social distance, family social distance, COVID-19 exposure), and sociodemographic variables (age, gender, race/ethnicity, educational level). Results: Individuals who had a pre-existing physical health diagnosis were more likely to believe that their personal health was at risk during the pandemic but were not more likely to comply with social distancing guidelines. In contrast, individuals who had a pre-existing mental health diagnosis were more compliant with social distancing guidelines but were not more likely to believe their personal health was at risk. Individuals who expressed greater fear of COVID-19 believed their health is more at risk than those who expressed lower levels of fear. Conclusion: Health considerations are important to account for in assessments of responses to the pandemic, beliefs about personal health risk, and social distancing behavior. Additional research is needed to understand the divergence in the findings regarding physical health, beliefs about personal health risk, and social distancing compliance. Further, research is needed to understand how mental health issues impact decision-making related to social distancing compliance.

We focus on the character of adolescent and young adult relationships, and argue that attention to interpersonal features of intimate partner violence (IPV) is necessary for a comprehensive view of this form of violence. Drawing on ideas from feminist post-structural perspectives, we highlight studies that develop a somewhat non-traditional but nevertheless gendered portrait of relationships as a backdrop for exploring dyadic processes associated with IPV. Findings are based on quantitative and qualitative analyses from a longitudinal study of a large, diverse sample of young women and men interviewed first during adolescence, and five additional times across the transition to adulthood.

The pandemic has created multiple changes in the lives of Americans, with growing and widespread concerns about the implications for the nation’s health and well-being. Most empirical examinations of the physical and mental health implications of the pandemic have rested on aggregate comparisons of prepandemic and pandemic indicators of health. The authors contribute to this body of work by considering continuity and change in health and well-being over time. The authors draw on respondents in a population-based sample with repeated health measures of physical health, depressive symptoms, and anxiety collected prior to the pandemic and subsequently during the pandemic. Using Sankey figures, the authors illustrate their health pathways and as a result highlight the importance of a longitudinal lens on assessments of health. The authors find health starting points are critical to understanding distribution and levels of physical and emotional health issues during the pandemic.

In the U.S., many young adults who have had contact with the criminal justice system are parents. Using the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (n = 1321), we drew on family demography and criminology literatures to examine the association between arrest, an understudied indicator of contact with the criminal justice system, and transitions to early parenthood. We also distinguished transitions to parenthood that occurred within four different relationship contexts: (1) single; (2) dating; (3) cohabiting; and (4) married. Using event history analyses, we found that young men and women who experienced an arrest transitioned to parenthood earlier than their counterparts who were not arrested. Further, men with an arrest, compared to men who had not been arrested, were more likely to report that they were dating the biological mother of their first child around the time of birth. In contrast, women with an arrest had an increased likelihood of having their first birth while cohabiting with the biological father. Our results highlighted the importance of a prior arrest for early transitions to parenthood and are relevant for understanding the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage and the diverging destinies of children and parents. Furthermore, the gender differences in the results illustrated the importance of including women in criminal justice analyses and men in fertility analyses.

Social characteristics are prominent factors in mate selection, but they can be risk factors for intimate partner violence. Yet this prior work is limited, as it largely focuses on demographic differences (or asymmetries) between intimate partners. In addition to demographic asymmetries, we explored how differences in relational and risk behaviors were associated with intimate partner violence. Examining data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) (n=828), we found that either partner's unemployment is associated with greater frequency of relationship violence; and, compared to same-race relationships, interracial relationships reported higher frequency of partner violence. Additionally, relationships in which men compared to their partners were more invested, were characterized by lower frequency of violence. Relationships characterized by any asymmetry in power, compared to those in which both partners held equal power, were also characterized by higher frequency of partner violence. Relationships in which the female partner was more successful at school or work compared to the male partner were associated with more frequent partner violence. Lastly, compared to relationships in which neither partner engaged in antisocial/criminal activity, those in which the male, but not female partner was antisocial/criminal and those in which both partners engaged in antisocial/criminal activity reported greater frequency of partner violence. These findings highlighted the importance of considering different types of asymmetries for understanding intimate partner violence in young adult relationships.

Sutherland’s differential association theory and the life course perspective have at times been conceptualized as contrasting theories of criminal behavior. I argue instead that our understanding of delinquency, the dynamics underlying criminal persistence and desistance, and intergenerational patterns, will be enhanced by a more explicit integration of these two traditions. I focus on family processes, as these are foundational intimate relationships that remain underappreciated as a source of lifelong learning and influence. While family support and variations in parental supervision have been amply investigated, ‘direct transmission’ takes place within the family as well as within the confines of the more heavily studied world of adolescent peer groups. I identify five dimensions of direct transmission, and illustrate these dynamic processes with qualitative data from two longitudinal studies and results of recent quantitative analyses. The analysis is generally in line with Sutherland’s original formulation, but includes several extensions and modifications. It is important to include a role for human agency, and for ‘non-criminal’ definitions and lifestyle factors, in addition to the directly criminogenic definitions Sutherland and subsequent researchers have emphasized. The focus on social processes is, however, consistent with Sutherland’s goal of highlighting limitations of psychological and biological differences explanations.

We draw on structured data collected in connection with a three-generation study of a large heterogenous sample of youth to further develop our life-course perspective on parental incarceration and other family-based sources of risk and resilience. Whereas prior studies have inadequately accounted for negative dynamics connected to parents’ antisociality and problem behaviors, we uncover key differences in parents’ levels of crime, substance use, intimate partner violence, and parenting strategies among those with and without a history of incarceration. Looking beyond the parent-child dyad, we also identify important differences in youths’ broader social networks, including problem alcohol and drug use, mental health problems, criminal justice involvement, and employment difficulties among associates both within and outside the home. Despite this general portrait of greater social and economic disadvantage, we did find evidence of family-based strengths or resilience, as children exposed to parental incarceration fared better when they were also exposed to more positive parenting practices. We discuss the implications of approaches that similarly consider incarceration in tandem with other ongoing family experiences and dynamics for research, theorizing, and programmatic responses.

Although research suggests that parental incarceration is associated with intergenerational continuity in crime, the mechanisms underlying this association remain unclear. Using multi-population structural equation modeling and data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (n = 1207), the current study explored specific experiences associated with labeling as well as internalizing labels, including experiencing corporal punishment during childhood, criminal arrests during adolescence, and identifying as a troublemaker/partier in young adulthood (measured with reflected appraisals), as potential mechanisms linking parental incarceration and young adults’ offending. We assessed whether this association differed by young adults’ level of emotional independence, that is, freedom from the need for parental approval. We found that parental incarceration indirectly influenced criminal activity particularly through identifying as a troublemaker/partier during young adulthood but only for those who sought parental approval. Overall, we concluded that high emotional independence, or not seeking parental approval, may be a protective factor that facilitates intergenerational discontinuities in crime.

Most theoretical treatments of intimate partner violence (IPV) focus on individual-level processes. More recently, scholars have begun to examine the role of macrolevel factors. Results of that research indicate that social ties facilitate the diffusion of cultural norms—including tolerance of deviance/violence—across neighborhoods. Yet the influence of the neighborhood normative climate extends beyond norms regarding the use of violence, shaping cultural understanding about dating and the opposite sex. Using data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS), the current investigation examines the multilevel association between dating norms and IPV perpetration among a large, diverse sample of adolescents and young adults. Results indicate that individuals’ liberal dating attitudes are associated with IPV perpetration. Furthermore, this effect varies across levels of neighborhood disadvantage.

To highlight the development of young adult couples' shared understandings about reasons for conflict in their relationships, views about why some disagreements included the use of aggression ("causes"), and gendered perspectives on these relationship dynamics.Feminist theories have centered on relationship dynamics associated with intimate partner violence (IPV), but have focused primarily on men's concerns (e.g., jealousy) and use of violence as a means of control over female partners. The current analysis drew on symbolic interaction theory as a framework for exploring couple-level concerns, and ways in which dyadic communication contributes to these understandings, or what can be considered "micro-cultures" of conflict.The study relied on in-depth interviews with a heterogeneous sample of IPV-experienced young adults who had participated in a larger longitudinal study (Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study [TARS]) and separate interviews with their partners (Analyses revealed that women's concerns about men's actions (e.g., infidelity) were frequently cited as reasons for serious conflicts, and showed significant concordance in partners' reports. Shared understandings sometimes extended to views on the role of more distal causes (e.g., family background) and the meaning(s) of each partner's use of aggression. Gendered dynamics included men's tendency to minimize women's concerns, and both partners' more open discussions of women's perpetration.Theories of IPV and associated programmatic efforts should include attention to the social construction of these "micro-cultures," as these shared meanings affect behavior, are potentially malleable, and add to the more intuitive focus on one-sided forces of control and constraint.

Much prior research acknowledges that peers influence adolescents’ sexual behaviors. Yet few studies have explored whether and how peers influence sexual decision making among emerging adults, especially among those in committed intimate partnerships, while also accounting for dynamics specific to the intimate relationship and respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics. Drawing on longitudinal data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study, this report examined multiple aspects of peer influence on three different sexual behaviors among emerging adults: sexual non-exclusivity, number of casual sex partners, and lifetime number of sex partners. It was found that having more sexually liberal peers and peers who engaged in criminal activity significantly influenced emerging adults’ self-reported numbers of casual and lifetime sex partners, as well as the frequency of engagement in sexually non-exclusive behaviors among those in committed dating, cohabiting, and marital partnerships. This report discusses potential theoretical mechanisms linking these relationships and provides suggestions for future research.

Prior research acknowledges that families and peers influence adolescents' sexual behaviors. Far fewer studies have explored whether and how families and peers influence sexual behaviors among emerging adults, especially among those in committed intimate partnerships, while also accounting for dynamics specific to the intimate relationship and respondents' sociodemographic characteristics. Even less is known about whether and how previous romantic relationship experiences might influence emerging adults' future sexual behavior both within and outside the confines of committed intimate partnerships. Drawing on longitudinal data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study, we examined how emerging adults' family backgrounds, peers' sexual attitudes and behaviors, and past and current relationship experiences influenced their engagement in casual sex and sexual non-exclusivity. We found that each of these contexts was significant predictors of emerging adults' casual sex, and that both peers and romantic relationship experiences significantly influenced the likelihood of engaging in sexually non-exclusive behaviors among those in committed dating, cohabiting, and marital partnerships. We discuss potential theoretical mechanisms linking these relationships and provide suggestions for future research.

We build on prior research examining military involvement and criminal involvement by investigating the importance of acquiring the more complete “respectability package” that includes marriage as well as military experience and variations among White and Black respondents. Using data from Waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health; n = 5,801), analyses use logistic regression models to assess associations of military service, marriage, and race with odds of reoffending among White and Black young adults who reported offending at Wave I. Military involvement was associated with lower odds of offending for Black respondents only, while marriage was associated with decreased odds of reoffending across both groups. Among Black respondents, analyses also highlighted the importance of acquiring both components of the respectability package (military service and marriage) in the context of today’s all-volunteer force in reducing criminal involvement.

Objectives: Research on criminal continuity and change has traditionally focused on elements of the adult life course (e.g., marriage and employment); however, recent social and economic changes suggest the need to consider a broader range of factors. In addition, researchers have increasingly recognized the importance of identity changes in the desistance process. Methods: Using five waves of structured data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS), we examined identity changes, shifts in involvement with delinquent peers, and variability in closeness with parents as influences on desistance. In-depth interviews with a subset of TARS respondents offered a person-centered lens on individual and social processes associated with variability in criminal behavior. Results: Findings indicated that identity changes were associated with declines in offending. In addition, changes in parental closeness and the extent of affiliation with antisocial peers contributed to patterns of offending, net of these subjectively experienced cognitive changes. Conclusions: Cognitive processes are important to desistance. However, they do not independently provide a path to sustained behavioral change. Social experiences, including changes in relationships/supports from parents and affiliation with delinquent peers, also figure into change processes. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research and programmatic efforts.

Children experiencing parental incarceration face numerous additional disadvantages, but researchers have often relied on these other co-occurring factors primarily as controls. In this article, we focus on the intimate links between crime and incarceration, as well as on the broader family context within which parental incarceration often unfolds. Thus, parents' drug use and criminal behavior that precedes and may follow incarceration periods may be ongoing stressors that directly affect child well-being. We also use our analyses to foreground mechanisms associated with social learning theories, including observations and communications that increase the child's risk for criminal involvement and other problem outcomes. These related family experiences often channel the child's own developing network ties (peers, romantic partners) that then serve as proximal influences. We explore these processes by drawing on qualitative and quantitative data from a study of the lives of a sample of respondents followed from adolescence to young adulthood, as well as on records searches of parents' incarceration histories. Through our analyses, we find evidence that 1) some effects attributed to parental incarceration likely connect to unmeasured features of the broader family context, and b) together parental incarceration and the broader climate often constitute a tightly coupled package of family-related risks linked to intergenerational continuities in criminal behavior and other forms of social disadvantage.

In this review, we consider theory and research focused on girls’ and women's violence, with an emphasis on studies that inform long-running debates about whether uniquely gendered explanations are required to understand such behaviors. The review emphasizes potentially malleable social processes and influences as well as studies that have explored neighborhood, family, and peer-based sources of risk. We also examine contemporary research on precursors of a specific type of aggression—intimate partner violence—where self-reports of perpetration have been found to be similar across gender, but research has consistently shown that the consequences are generally more serious for female victims. Our review draws on findings from analyses of large-scale survey data as well as qualitative approaches that explore meanings and motivations. The results point to significant areas of overlap, as well as some distinctive patterns in gender, support learning, and intersectionality theories, and identify potentially fruitful areas for additional research.

Despite the centrality of dating relationships for teens, it is unclear whether the influence of romantic partners’ alcohol use on adolescents’ under-age drinking is distinct from the influence of peers and parents. To address this gap, this study used longitudinal data from a population-based sample of 825 adolescents (49% male, 51% female), ages 12 to 19. Adolescents completed a survey using laptops for privacy, and a parent completed a survey separately. Ordinary least squares and logistic regression models assessed alcohol use frequency and alcohol problems and included dating partners’ drinking, adolescents’ prior drinking, peers’ drinking, parents’ substance use, parental monitoring, and sociodemographic background characteristics. Alcohol use frequency and alcohol problems were influenced by dating partners’ alcohol use and dating partners’ influence was stronger on older adolescents and male adolescents. The study results are useful for public health messaging and prevention efforts by demonstrating the influence of parents, peers, and dating partners on teens’ alcohol use.

PURPOSE: Assessments of young adult well-being often focus on family formation and employment experiences, and ignore the potentially important, continuing role of parents. We consider whether and how parental influence reaches beyond the adolescent years. METHODS: Drawing on longitudinal data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) (N= 1242) and multilevel modeling, analyses examine direct and indirect ways that traditional parenting practices, as well as parental histories of problematic behavior influence trajectories of offspring antisocial behavior. RESULTS: Parental antisocial experiences influenced young adult outcomes and operated through youths’ own developing identities. Youths whose parents scored higher on an index of antisocial behavior were more likely to agree with partier and troublemaker labels. Traditional parenting factors, such as parental support and harsh parenting also influenced respondents’ own trajectories of antisocial behavior. Thus, parental influence persisted net of young adult gainful activity (school, employment), parenthood, and intimate involvement. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the current study highlight that parent-child relationships and their association with antisocial behavior remains fluid and dynamic well into adolescence and young adulthood. Parents are also implicated in the adoption of problematic identities which in turn are associated with antisocial behavior. Taken together, greater attention should be given to how parents shape and influence the trajectories of behavior among their adolescent and young adult offspring.

Recent increases in the average age at first marriage have created an extended period during which young adults frequently continue to socialize with friends, even as romantic ties typically become increasingly serious. Nevertheless, little research has focused on some of the challenges associated with navigating these two social worlds simultaneously. The current study expanded the traditional lens of social learning theory to investigate associations between a range of attitudes and behaviors of friends and a serious form of conflict-intimate partner violence (IPV). Analyses relied on structured survey and in-depth interview data from a longitudinal study of a large, diverse sample of male and female respondents followed across the adolescent to adult transition (n = 928). Consistent with prior work, friends' IPV experience was significantly associated with respondents' own IPV perpetration. Yet the social learning perspective we developed highlighted the importance of considering a broader portfolio of friends' characteristics. Controlling for friends' IPV experience and family background: (a) involvement with friends perceived as more liberal in their attitudes toward dating and sexuality and (b) friends' delinquent behavior were both associated with the odds of reporting IPV. Further, longitudinal analyses showed an effect of variability in friends' delinquency on within-individual changes in IPV across the full study period, suggesting that the association is not due solely to an underlying antisocial propensity. In-depth interviews with a subset of respondents (n = 102) corroborate these results, further illuminate underlying mechanisms, and highlight the dynamic aspects of these forms of social involvement during young adulthood.

OBJECTIVES: Researchers have found that experiencing parental incarceration has long-term consequences for children, such as involvement in crime. However, few studies have examined how parental incarceration influences identity endorsement. Given that self-identities influence behavior, including criminal activity, understanding precursors of self-identities is important. In the current paper, we examined the association between parental incarceration and young adult children’s deviant self-identities. Furthermore, we explored how this association varied by emotional independence, or freedom from the excessive need for parental approval. METHODS: We analyzed data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) (n = 965), a sample of men and women interviewed five times over a period of ten years (2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2011), and publically available official incarceration records. RESULTS: Parental incarceration was only positively associated with identifying as a troublemaker/partier during young adulthood among those with low emotional independence (i.e., for those with the need for parental approval) (p < 0.05). That is, parental incarceration was inconsequential for young adults’ identifying as troublemakers/partiers among those with high levels of emotional independence (i.e., for those with freedom from the need for parental approval). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the development of high emotional independence, or values, beliefs, and identities in contrast to and separate from an incarcerated parent, may attenuate the intergenerational transmission of antisocial identities and behavior.

Jealousy has been linked to a number of deleterious relationship outcomes; yet, few studies have explored the broader ways in which inducing jealousy affects intimate relationships. Using data on 892 young adults from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study, we examined correlates and consequences of intentionally inducing jealousy in intimate relationships. Results indicated that factors both unique and internal to the intimate dyad and those external to the intimate relationship were associated with jealousy-inducing behaviors. Dyadic factors included verbal conflict and partners’ infidelity and controlling behaviors, and external factors included childhood experiences of parent–child physical aggression. Jealousy induction was associated with experiences of partner violence after accounting for familial background, relationship, and sociodemographic factors. We discuss potential mechanisms linking these relationship dynamics and provide suggestions for future research.

In the US, approximately 70% of mothers and 93% of fathers with children who are under 18 years are in the paid labor force, and studies have documented that employed parents with young children often experience high levels of stress as they attempt to manage or balance the demands of their work and family roles. The current study focused on factors associated with observed variability in reports about work–family stress and considered the roles of parenting stress, child characteristics, as well as conflict with the other parent. Prior research has shown that parenting a more “difficult” child is a source of parenting stress, but such studies have not focused specifically on work–family conflict as a consequential outcome, have tended to be limited to older parents, and often have focused only on mothers. We also investigated the role of partner disagreements about assistance with parenting responsibilities as a further complication to family life that may influence perceived work–family stress among co-residential parents. Drawing on data from employed young adult parents, the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) (n=263), we found that having a child perceived as more difficult was associated with greater work–family stress. Among co-residential parents, stress but not parenting disagreements with the other parent was associated with greater work–family stress. The findings highlight the importance of providing institutional and informal support to such parents.

The aim of the current investigation was to examine the appropriateness of propensity score methods for the study of incarceration effects on children by directing attention to a range of conceptual and practical concerns, including the exclusion of theoretically meaningful covariates, the comparability of treatment and control groups, and potential ambiguities resulting from researcher-driven analytic decisions. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we examined the effects of maternal and paternal incarceration on a range of child well-being outcomes, including internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test scores, and early juvenile delinquency. Our findings suggested that propensity scores and treatment effect estimates are highly sensitive to a number of decisions made by the researcher, including aspects where little consensus exists. In light of the conceptual underpinnings of propensity score analysis and existing data limitations, we suggest the potential utility of different identification methods and specialized data collection efforts.

Prior empirical research on intimate partner violence (IPV) in adolescence and young adulthood often focuses on exposure to violence in the family-of-origin using retrospective and cross-sectional data. Yet individuals’ families matter beyond simply the presence or absence of abuse, and these effects may vary across time. To address these issues, the present study employed five waves of longitudinal data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) to investigate the trajectory of IPV from adolescence to young adulthood (N = 950 respondents, 4,750 person-periods) with a specific focus on how familial factors continue to matter across the life course. Results indicated that family-of-origin violence and parent-child relationship quality were independent predictors of IPV. The effect of parent-child relationship quality on IPV also became greater as individuals aged. These results have implications for policies targeted at reducing IPV.

Prior work examining intimate partner violence (IPV) among young adults often has emphasized familial characteristics, such as parent–child physical aggression (PCPA), and romantic relationship dynamics, such as jealousy and controlling behaviors, but has not considered these two domains simultaneously. Likewise, research examining how these two domains affect IPV perpetration over time for young adults is still limited. Using five waves of data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study ( N = 950), the present study examined the influence of parent–child relationship factors and romantic relationship dynamics in both their main and interactive effects on IPV perpetration spanning adolescence through young adulthood. Results from random-effects analyses indicated that both familial and romantic relationship dynamics should be taken into account when predicting IPV perpetration. Importantly, these two domains interacted to produce cumulatively different risk for engaging in violence against a romantic partner. Individuals were more likely to perpetrate IPV when their romantic relationship was characterized by verbal aggression if they reported PCPA experiences.

Background: Although some studies have found that incarceration is associated with young adults’ poor health, confounding factors including adolescent health risks, and mediating influences such as stress have not been examined in the same study. We assessed whether variation in criminal justice system experience (none, arrest only, incarceration) influenced young adults’ self-reported depressive symptoms and poor physical health after accounting for prospective risks to health including adolescent health risks. We then assessed whether stress mediated associations between criminal justice involvement and the two health indicators. Methods: Data are from Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) (n =990), which included young adults, age 22-29, who have matured during the era characterized by mass incarceration. The dependent variables included a depressive symptoms scale and self-reported poor health. The adolescent health risks included economic disadvantage, body mass index, delinquency, problems with drugs, and prior depressive symptoms. We considered stress as a mediating variable. Sociodemographic characteristics included race/ethnicity, age, and gender. We used ordinary least squares regression and logistic regression analyses. We tested gender, race/ethnicity, and age interactions. Results: In multivariable models, incarceration, and adolescent health risks (economic disadvantage, prior depression, problems with drugs) were associated with young adults’ depressive symptoms, and stress was a mediating influence. Adolescent delinquency and stress, but not incarceration, were significantly associated with young adults’ self-reported poor health. Conclusion: This study provided a more nuanced understanding of incarceration and health by accounting for several key confounding factors and testing stress as a mechanism underlying the association. Care for prisoner health during and after incarceration is important for successful reintegration.

Research suggests violence in the family-of-origin is a consistent predictor of later intimate partner violence (IPV). However, prior empirical studies have also demonstrated that exposure to violence does not lead deterministically to violent behaviors in young adulthood. Given that family context entails more than simply the presence or absence of abuse, additional aspects of family life warrant examination. One such aspect is the quality of the parent–child relationship. Using five waves of data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study ( N = 950 respondents, 443 males and 507 females), the present study examined both main and interactive effects of parent–child physical aggression (PCPA) and parent–child relationship quality (PCRQ) in predicting adolescents’ and young adults’ IPV perpetration. Results indicated that both PCPA and PCRQ were key independent predictors of individuals’ IPV perpetration, but did not interact to produce cumulatively different risk. Important interactions between PCPA and gender, and PCRQ and age were also found.

Background Scholars have documented the significant physical health consequences of intimate partner violence. Yet, because existing research draws primarily on clinical samples of adult women, it is unclear whether exposure to dating violence is related to health detriments among young men and women. Furthermore, data limitations largely have precluded consideration of the mechanisms underlying these previously observed associations. Aims We sought to examine the direct association between dating violence and self-rated physical health during adolescence and across the transition to adulthood. We also directed attention to potential mediating and confounding factors, including negative relationship dynamics, anti-social lifestyle characteristics and physical health correlates. Methods Drawing on five waves of data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (n = 3746 person-periods), we used growth curve analyses to examine these associations among a sample of young men and women in dating relationships. Results Longitudinal analyses revealed that dating violence was associated with declines in self-rated physical health across the period from adolescence to young adulthood. This effect, however, was attenuated with the inclusion of negative relationship dynamics. Conclusions Findings suggest the need to further examine the physical health consequences of dating violence, with a particular focus on the relationship context and other potential confounding forces. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Social learning theory remains one of the leading explanations of intimate partner violence (IPV). Research on attitudes toward IPV represents a logical extension of the social learning tradition, as it is intuitive to expect that individuals exposed to violence in the family of origin may internalize behavioral scripts for violence and adopt attitudes accepting of IPV. Yet despite this assumed link between family violence and attitudes toward IPV, few studies have empirically examined factors associated with the development of such attitudes. Using data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationship Study (TARS), we examine the role of family violence on the adoption of attitudes accepting of IPV among a sample of young adults ( n = 928). The current investigation contributes to existing literature on attitudes toward IPV by (a) providing an empirical examination of factors associated with attitudes toward IPV in predictive models; (b) relying on a multifaceted index, describing specific conditions under which IPV may be deemed justifiable; (c) examining extra-familial factors, in addition to family violence exposure, to provide a more comprehensive account of factors associated with attitudes toward IPV; and (d) focusing particular attention on the role of gender, including whether the factors associated with attitudinal acceptance of IPV are similar for men and women. Findings indicated considerable variation in overall endorsement of attitudes regarding the use of violence across conditions, with greater endorsement among women. Consistent with social learning approaches to IPV, exposure to violence in the family of origin was associated with attitudes toward IPV. Yet findings also signaled the salience of factors beyond the family, including a range of sociodemographic, relationship, and adult status characteristics. We discuss the relevance of our findings for future theorizing and research in the area of attitudes toward IPV.

Family scholars have demonstrated that economic conditions influence marital quality and relationship instability. Similarly, researchers have identified low income and poverty as important risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV). Yet limited work has examined how economic factors influence the use of violence in the romantic context, particularly during young adulthood. Using the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (n = 928), we examine the influence of economic and career concerns as specific sources of conflict on IPV among a sample of young adults. FINDINGS suggest that these areas of disagreement within romantic relationships are associated with IPV risk, net of traditional predictors. We discuss the implications of our findings for intervention and prevention efforts. Language: en

Purpose To assess changes in self-reported intimate partner violence (IPV) experience from adolescence through young adulthood. To examine whether individual change in indicators of relationship context—qualities and dynamics of the relationship, changes in partners, and relationship type (dating, cohabiting, and married)—were associated with change in self-reports of IPV. Methods Drawing on longitudinal population-based data, the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study, we used fixed-effects models to estimate within-person change in associations between features of respondents' intimate relationships and the proportion of relationships with IPV from adolescence through young adulthood. Analyses focused on 1,146 young men and women ages 13–29 years (51% female). Items measuring IPV were from the Conflict Tactics Scale. Results More than half of respondents (53%) experienced discontinuity in IPV across relationships. Among those reporting violence, the vast majority (87%) did not experience violence in all of their relationships. Age-related patterns were similar for men and women with IPV peaking in young adulthood. Infidelity, frequency of disagreements, and partner continuity were associated with a higher proportion of relationships with IPV. Improvements in the nature and character of romantic relationships were associated with a lower accumulation of IPV experiences. Conclusions IPV, although prevalent, does not represent a consistent experience. As young adults develop higher quality relationships they move toward desistance from IPV. Yet, variability in these experiences is observed, supporting previous calls for programs that promote the development of healthy relationships among adolescents and young adults.

The purpose of this study was to assess the longitudinal association between adolescent dating relationship dynamics (measures of intimacy and problem dynamics), mental health, and physical and/or sexual victimization by a dating partner. Gender-stratified analyses were conducted in a sample of 261 adolescents, ages 10-18 at baseline, interviewed in three annual waves (2013-2015) of the nationally representative Survey on Teen Relationships and Intimate Violence (STRiV). Among male daters, better mental health at baseline was negatively associated with problem dynamics at follow-up, and aspects of problem dynamics at baseline predicted worse mental health at follow-up. However, unexpectedly, aspects of relationship intimacy at baseline were also negatively associated with mental health at follow-up. Male daters' victimization did not mediate longitudinal measures of mental health or of relationship dynamics, but did predict worse mental health at follow-up. Among female daters, we found no longitudinal associations between mental health and intimacy or problem relationship dynamics, in either direction. However, victimization mediated aspects of female daters' reported relationship dynamics. Dating violence prevention efforts should reflect that adolescent females reporting controlling behaviors and feelings of passionate love may be at increased risk for victimization. Positive youth development efforts should attend to the bidirectional associations of mental health and dating relationship dynamics over time, particularly for male adolescents.

In recent years, a majority of young adults experience cohabitation. Nevertheless, cohabitation is a risk factor for intimate partner violence (IPV). Drawing on social exchange and commitment theory we analyzed young adults' IPV experiences using the recently collected (2011-2012) Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study data (n = 926). We found that sociodemographic characteristics, relationship commitment, quality, and constraints as well as prior experience with violence (in prior relationships and family of origin) were associated with IPV, but did not explain the association between cohabitation and IPV. We examined variation among individuals in cohabiting relationships to determine which cohabitors face the greatest risk of intimate partner violence. Serial cohabitors along with cohabitors who experienced both low commitment and high relational constraints experienced the greatest risk of IPV. These findings provided insights into the implications of cohabitation for the well-being of young adults.

Research has pointed to the salience of friendships in predicting abuse in adolescent dating relationships. The current study investigates the perpetration of physical and sexual dating abuse as predicted by individual conditional tolerance for dating abuse within the context of friendship behaviors and group characteristics. Using two waves of the National Survey of Teen Relationships and Intimate Violence (STRiV; N = 511 daters aged 12-18 years), we investigated the effects of baseline individual tolerance for hitting dating partners and friendship factors on perpetration of physical and sexual adolescent dating abuse (ADA) approximately 1 year later. Conditional tolerance for hitting boyfriends was associated with ADA perpetration in the absence of friendship characteristics. Daters who reported recent discussion of a problem with friends and female daters who named all-girl friendship groups were more likely to report ADA perpetration. Close friendships are an avenue for preventing ADA perpetration. Furthermore, ADA perpetration may be reduced by targeting conditional tolerance for violence particularly against male partners within female friendship groups.

A common theme in the literature is that intimate partner violence (IPV) is not about anger, but about power and control. While prior research has focused either on respondents' or partners' controlling behaviors, an interactionist perspective provides the basis for hypothesizing that both respondent and partner control will be significantly related to the odds of reporting perpetration, and that emotional processes are a component of IPV experiences. Analyses rely on interview data collected at waves 1 and 5 of a longitudinal study (Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study; n = 928) of adolescent and young adult relationships. Results indicate that after controlling for traditional predictors, both respondent and partner control attempts and measures of anger (including a measure of relationship-based anger) contributed significantly to the odds of reporting perpetration. Further, these patterns did not differ by gender, indicating some areas of similarity in the relationship and emotional processes associated with variations in men and women's IPV reports.

Prior research on patterns of intimate partner violence (IPV) has documented changes over time, but few studies have focused directly on IPV desistance processes. This analysis identifies unique features of IPV, providing a rationale for the focus on this form of behavior cessation. We develop a life-course perspective on social learning as a conceptual framework and draw on qualitative interviews (n = 89) elicited from a sample of young adults who participated in a larger longitudinal study (Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study). The respondents' backgrounds reflected a range of persistence and desistance from IPV perpetration. Our analyses revealed that relationship-based motivations and changes were central features of the narratives of successful desisters, whether articulated as a stand-alone theme or in tandem with other potential "hooks" for change. The analysis provides a counterpoint to individualistic views of desistance processes, highlighting ways in which social experiences foster attitude shifts and associated behavioral changes that respondents tied to this type of behavior change. The analyses of persisters and those for whom change seemed to be a work in progress provide points of contrast and highlight barriers that limit a respondent's desistance potential. We describe implications for theories of desistance as well as for IPV prevention and intervention efforts.

As scholars and practitioners alike have drawn attention to negative effects of incarceration, researchers have increasingly considered that one of the most important collateral consequences may be the impact on the wellbeing of children. Most research on the effects of parental incarceration has focused on the father's incarceration, which is a reasonable emphasis given the much higher rates of male incarceration. Yet every jurisdiction includes a number of women incarcerated in local and state facilities, and as Turney and Wildeman (2015, this issue) note, this number has been increasing (Guerino, Harrison, and Sabol, 2011). They further underscore that similar to male incarceration, this phenomenon has become a bigger issue in the lives of poor and minority children who already face significant challenges (Wildeman, 2009). A compelling reason to focus research attention on maternal incarceration in particular is that although research clearly has established that father involvement is an important basis of variation across a range of child wellbeing outcomes (e.g., Carlson, 2006; Dyer, Day, and Harper, 2013), mothers remain "close in" if not the primary caregivers for a majority of U.S. children. Thus, it is important to determine not only whether there are aggregate effects of maternal incarceration on children, as Wildeman and Turney (2014) have explored in other recent analyses, but also how the effects can vary, as in Turney and Wildeman's current (2015) study. Language: en

Race–ethnic differences in a range of childbearing behaviors are long standing and well documented, and these differences are attenuated, but not eliminated, when accounting for socioeconomic disparities. The residual differences are often attributed to vague and untested variation across race–ethnic groups in knowledge, attitudes, psychological attributes, normative beliefs, and social context. We use the longitudinal Toledo Adolescent Relationship Study (TARS), which contains a rich set of such factors measured in early adolescence, to assess whether they contribute to race–ethnic differences in having a birth among men and women ages 17–24 (n = 1,042). Specifically, we test whether individual attitudes, religiosity, and academic behaviors; knowledge and behaviors regarding sex and dating; peer normative context; and parental communication about sex account for variation in the risk of an early birth. We find that socioeconomic factors attenuate but do not reduce differences between black, Hispanic, and white respondents. Including adolescent academic performance and early entry into sex reduces the black–white difference in the odds of early fertility to non-significance; however, beyond socioeconomic status, none of the broad range of factors further attenuate Hispanic–white differences, which remain large and statistically significant.

Most prior studies of intimate partner violence (IPV) have relied on traditional indices of parental support, control or coercion to examine the nature and extent of parental influences. We explore whether parents' more general attitudes toward their child's dating and associated parenting practices are related to the young adult child's report of IPV, once traditional parent factors and other covariates are introduced. Using data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (n = 625), results indicate that net of other parenting dimensions and controls for child and neighborhood characteristics, parental negativity about their child's dating and related parenting practices are associated with later reports of IPV during young adulthood. Parent-child conflict and the child's own feelings of gender mistrust were considered as potential mediators. Results suggest the importance of widening the lens beyond support, control and even the parents' own use of violence to include a range of parental attitudes and behaviors that influence the child's approach to and conduct within the romantic realm.

Recent research has demonstrated that gender mistrust influences the formation and stability of intimate relationships. However, several scholars have noted that individuals form unions despite high levels of mistrust. Yet limited work has examined the implications of gender mistrust for relationship quality, including the experience of intimate partner violence. Furthermore, few quantitative studies have examined correlates of gender mistrust, particularly with regard to identifying factors associated with changes in feelings of mistrust over time. Using the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study, we examined longitudinal predictors of gender mistrust among a sample of adolescents and young adults ( n = 4,466 observations) and found that although parents’ gender mistrust and sociodemographic characteristics were associated with initial levels of mistrust, individuals’ own relationship experiences further shaped trajectories of gender mistrust over time. Additionally, feelings of mistrust corresponded to heightened odds of intimate partner violence perpetration, and this association appeared especially salient for women.