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Author info: Correspondence should be sent to: Paul
Nicodemus, Department of
Psychology, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN
37044
North American Journal of Psychology, 2009, Vol. 11, No. 3,
455-462.
The Effects of Maternal Relationships on
Physical and Psychological Dating Violence
Paul Nicodemus
Austin Peay State University
Patricia A. Davenport
Our House, Inc., Greenville, MS
Lynn E. McCutcheon
NAJP
Psychological and physical dating violence patterns were
examined to

determine if maternal relationships affected dating violence
patterns
differently for male and female adolescents. Participants
consisted of 469
ninth grade students from various schools across the Mississippi
Delta
region. Participants completed self-report evaluations regarding
the
number of experienced and perpetrated violent acts with a
dating partner.
A series of two-way ANOVAs were calculated to determine the
influence
of maternal relationships on dating violence. These findings
indicated
that maternal relationships do not significantly influence the
physically
violent behaviors; however, significant interactions were found
between
maternal relationships by gender, with males perpetrating
greater
numbers of and being victimized more psychologically when the
relationship with the mother was negative. Female participants
displayed
completely opposite patterns of psychological violence when

experiencing negative maternal relationships as compared to the
males.
The issue of dating violence has received considerable research
attention over the past several years. The social problem created
by
adolescents being both physically and psychologically violent
toward a
dating partner, and the resulting victimization, is cause for
serious
concern. Several factors have emerged from the extant research.
First, it
is apparent that both physical and psychological abuse occurs
regularly
among adolescents. Secondly, certain individual attributes
increase the
likelihood of adolescents becoming abusive toward their dating
partners.
Previous research has indicated that dating violence among
adolescents is a prevalent problem. James, West, Deters, and
Armijo
(2000) reported that 50% of their adolescent participants
perpetrated

physical violence in the form of scratching, pushing, shoving,
and hitting
with fist. Yet other studies have indicated that as many as 40%
of the
adolescent participants had perpetrated some form of physical
violence
456 NORTH AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY
against the dating partner (Malik, Sorenson, & Aneshensel,
1997;
O′Keefe, 1997; O′Keefe & Treister, 1998; O’Leary, Smith Slep,
Avery-
Leaf, & Cascardi, 2008; Reuterman & Burcky, 1989). The
exhibiting of
violent acts of a more serious nature is also apparent during the
adolescent years. In one such study, James et al. (2000) found
that 20%
of the participants reported committing violent behaviors such
as biting,
choking, burning, physically twisting an arm, and hitting a
partner with a
hard object. O’Leary et al. (2008) found that injuries were
reported by

more than 25% of their high-schoolers who had been the
recipients of
physical aggression. Furthermore, another study unearthed a
disturbing
trend; the prevalence of serious aggression increased as age
increased in
a huge sample of 16-20 year-olds (Munoz-Rivas, Grana,
O’Leary, &
Gonzalez, 2007).
Similar prevalence percentages have also been reported for
perpetrating psychological dating violence and experiencing
psychological victimization in dating relationships. James et al.
(2000)
found that approximately half of the adolescent participants
reported
being psychologically abusive toward the dating partner;
furthermore,
James and his colleagues reported that 50% had been victims of
psychological dating violence. Verbal aggression was
perpetrated by
about 94% of the adolescents in another study (Munoz-Rivas, et
al.,
2007).

In an attempt to understand the nature of this violence, recent
research has focused on identifying characteristics of the
abusers.
Alcohol/drug intoxication has been shown to increase the
likelihood of
engaging in dating violence (O′Keefe, 1997; O′Keeffe,
Brockopp &
Chew, 1986; Roscoe & Kelsey, 1986). Adolescents who live in
rural
settings also tend to be more likely to perpetrate dating violence
(Reuterman & Burcky, 1989; Spencer & Bryant, 2000). Linder,
Crick
and Collins found that being alienated from one’s mother was a
marker
for physical dating violence (2002). There is also considerable
evidence
for gender differences in the perception and use of violence in
dating
relationships (O’Keefe & Treister, 1998; also see Straus, 1999,
for an
excellent review of the lengthy history of the gender
controversy in
violent dating relationships).

Straus (1999) argued that effective prevention strategies for
adolescents and young adults are likely to follow in the wake of
research
on violence in dating relationships. With that ultimate goal in
mind, the
purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects that
the
relationship with the maternal figure would have on the
tendency to
display both psychological and physical abusive patterns. In
light of
existing gender differences it was further decided to compare
males and
females across three categories of maternal relationships. We
Nicodemus, Davenport & McCutcheon DATING
VIOLENCE 457
hypothesized that dating aggression would be higher among
those
persons identified as having a negative maternal relationship.
METHOD

Participants
The participants came from a pool of 688 ninth grade students
across
the mid-region of the Mississippi Delta, with a mean age of
14.84 years.
Sixty-eight percent of those pooled reported having experienced
previous
dating relationships (n=469). Of these 469 participants, 96%
were
African American, 2% were White, and 1% were “other.” Fifty-
one
percent of the participants were females and 49% were males.
Measures
Dating Violence Questionnaire. The dating violence assessment
consisted of four abusive components including: 1)
victimization of
physical violence, 2) perpetration of physical violence, 3)
victimization
of psychological violence, and 4) perpetration of psychological
violence
(for a lengthier description of the dating violence questionnaire,
see

Foshee et al., 1996). The subtest measuring victimization-
physical
violence included an 18-item self-report list that measures the
number of
physically violent acts experienced by the individual (e.g.,
scratched me,
slapped me, physically twisted my arm, etc.). The subtest for
perpetration-physical violence consisted of an 18-item self-
report list
assessing the frequency of committing physically violent
behaviors
toward the dating partner (e.g., scratched them, slapped them,
physically
twisted their arm, etc.). The victimization of psychological
violence was
measured with a 14-item self-report subtest (e.g., damaged
something
that belonged to me, said something to hurt my feelings, etc.).
The
subtest measuring perpetration of psychological violence toward
the
dating partner was a 14-item self-report assessment (e.g.,
damaged
something that belonged to them, said things to hurt their

feelings on
purpose, etc.). Total scores for each of the four violent behavior
subtests
were obtained by summing the respective test item scores for
each
question within the specific subtest.
Foshee and colleagues (1996) did not report psychometric data,
but
their items were written in simple, direct language and had face
validity
for an instrument designed to measure dating violence (i.e.
slapped,
kicked, hit with a fist, forced to have sex). Furthermore, the
results they
obtained from using this dating violence questionnaire are
consistent
with what one would expect from the use of a valid measure of
this sort.
For example, we would expect that the percentage of teens that
had been
pushed, slapped or kicked on a date would be considerably
higher than
the percentage of those who had been assaulted with a knife or
gun. In

fact, Foshee and colleagues found that almost 20% of their
sample
reported having experienced these milder forms of aggression,
but only
2.4% reported having been assaulted with a knife or gun.
Similar (but
slightly lower) numbers were reported for perpetration of these
violent
acts.
Procedure
Each of the participants completed the dating violence
questionnaire
in a single setting for approximately one hour. Participants were
excused
from the regular class schedule to participate in the present
study. The
data analyzed in the present study were obtained from the
pretest
measurement used in a three-year study investigating several
issues

related to dating violence.
The three levels in the independent variable of maternal
relationship
were determined by responses from the participants to the
question,
“How close are you to your mother?” Those participants that
reported
being very close to the mother were designated as the “positive”
group.
Those who reported being either somewhat close or not very
close were
placed in the “neutral” group. Finally, those participants that
reported not
being close at all were placed in the “negative” group.
RESULTS
The prevalence of dating violent behaviors in our study was
relatively
high. Results showed that 67% of our participants indicated
being a
victim of physical dating violence at least once in a dating
relationship.
Sixty-six percent reported perpetrating physical violence toward
the

dating partner at some point in the relationship. Furthermore,
76%
indicated that the dating partner had directed some form of
psychological
violence toward them, and 80% reported being psychologically
violent at
some point toward the dating partner.
The data were analyzed with a series of 3 x 2 (maternal
relationship x
gender) two-way Analyses of Variance. These results showed
that
maternal relationships and gender had minimal influence on
physical
dating violence. Neither maternal relationship nor gender
showed
significant main effects for perpetrating physical violence
toward the
dating partner; furthermore, these factors demonstrated little
influence for
victimization of physical violence for gender differences. In
addition,
these results did not yield significant interactions between
gender and
maternal relationships for either the perpetration or

victimization in
physical dating violence.
However, our results indicated that gender and maternal
relationships
do have significant effects in the perpetration and victimization
of
psychological dating violence. Results showed a significant
main effect
VIOLENCE 459
for gender regarding the victimization of psychological
violence, F(1,
452) = 8.77, p < .01 (see Table 1). Closer inspection revealed
that males
TABLE 1 Analysis of Variance for Psychological Dating
Violence –
Victimization .
Source df F P
Gender (A) 1 8.77 .003
Maternal Relationship (S) 2 1.53 .22

A x S 2 3.36 .04
Within-group error 452
had scores that were only slightly higher than those of females
in the
positive and neutral categories. However, the sharp elevation in
the
experiencing of psychological violence incidents reported by
males who
indicated poor maternal relationships, combined with a slight
drop for
females who reported negative maternal relationships resulted
in a
significant maternal relationship x gender interaction, F(2, 452)
= 3.36, p
= .04. The data indicated that males who experienced negative
maternal
relationships tended to experience considerably higher levels of
psychological violence than the other two male groups.
A significant interaction was also found with maternal
relationships x
gender for perpetration of psychological violence toward the
dating

partner, F (2, 452) = 3.53, p = .03 (see Table 2). This
significant inter-
TABLE 2 Analysis of Variance for Psychological Dating
Violence –
Perpetration Source .
Source df F P
Gender (A) 1 0.12 .73
Maternal Relationship (S) 2 1.01 .37
A x S 2 3.53 .03
Within-group error 452
action also involved those who reported negative relationships
with their
mothers. Females reported slightly more perpetration than males
in the
positive and neutral categories. However, males who reported
having
negative maternal relationships tended to perpetrate
significantly greater
numbers of psychologically violent acts than did males in the
other two
groups, and females with negative maternal relationships

reported much
less of a tendency to be psychologically abusive toward the
dating
partner than did female participants with positive or neutral
relationships.
This crossover effect wiped out the possibility of a significant
main effect
for gender, while simultaneously generating a significant
interaction.
DISCUSSION
The tendency for the participants in the present study to
demonstrate
high percentages in the perpetration and victimization of
physical dating
violence is consistent with previous findings. James, et al.
(2000)
reported that 50% of their adolescent participants perpetrated
some form
of physical dating violence. Other researchers have found that
about 40%

of adolescent participants have been involved in administering a
form of
physical violence toward the dating partner (Malik, Sorenson, &
Aneshensel, 1997; O′Keefe, 1997; O′Keefe & Treister, 1998;
O’Leary, et
al., 2008; Reuterman & Burcky, 1989). The tendency for
adolescent
participants in the present study to display higher percentages
than
normally expected may be explained by the fact that African
Americans
(Foshee et al., 1996; Malik et al., 1997; O′Keefe, 1997) and
individuals
residing in rural settings (Reuterman & Burcky; Spencer &
Bryant, 2000)
tend to report higher levels in physical dating violence both as
victims
and perpetrators. Therefore, the higher number of psychological
dating
violent acts reported by the participants in the present study
may be the
result of being primarily African American, or residing in
predominantly
rural settings, or a combination of both.

The fact that generally speaking, females were just about as
likely to
perpetrate dating violence as males, is consistent with a host of
studies
identified by Straus (1999) as ones that used a very broad
operational
definition of the term “violence.” According to his
interpretation of social
exchange theory, violent exchanges are reciprocal – it takes two
to have a
violent exchange. Also, most of these exchanges occur in
private, where
couples can get away with (mostly) mild types of aggression,
like yelling
and slapping each other. This helps to explain why the
frequency of
dating violence is high in studies like ours and roughly the same
between
genders. It also enables us to understand why the patterns of
perpetration
and victimization parallel each other, within each gender. In
other words,
in an exchange of violence both members of the dyad will be
perpetrators

and victims, hurting someone and being hurt in return.
According to our results, maternal relationships appear to
significantly influence psychological dating violence. This
finding
appears to be partially consistent with Linder, Crick, and
Collins (2002),
who reported that the level of mother alienation significantly
predicted
the initiation of psychological dating violence. On the other
hand, mother
alienation did not predict victimization in psychological dating
violence
in their study. Reuterman and Burcky (1989) found that teens
who
experienced the most dating violence came from families in
which harsh
VIOLENCE 461
punishment was common. Our results, combined with those of
these
other two studies, suggest that more attention should be directed
toward

parental influences in attempting to understand the precursors to
teen
dating violence.
Our gender-by-maternal interactions are of particular interest.
The
first of these involves the victimization of psychological dating
violence.
Our findings indicated that males demonstrated a higher
likelihood of
perceiving themselves as victims of psychological abuse if they
experienced a negative relationship with the mother figure. For
females
who reported negative maternal relationships the opposite was
true. The
patterns seen in the perpetration interaction were similar to that
of the
victimization interaction. In other words, if you are going to
“dish it out”
you must learn to “take it” as well.
How might we explain these interaction effects? We might
begin by
asking “What do both teen-age boys and girls do when they
don’t get

along with their mothers?” One likely answer is that they avoid
her
company when possible. According to Straus (1999), this might
result in
boys spending more time “hanging out” with boys and girls
spending
more time “hanging out” with girls. In our society male culture
is more
prone to use violence, while female culture emphasizes talking
out one’s
disagreements. Thus, boys who spend much time with other
boys may
learn to be more violent and girls who spend much time with
other girls
may learn to be less violent. The weakness in this hypothesis is
that it
failed to account for the non-interaction in the physical violence
domain.
The present research is not without some limitations. First, our
results
cannot be generalized to other ethnic groups or to the American
population as a whole. In addition, it may not be prudent to
generalize to

other adolescent age groups, since participants in the present
study were
primarily within the initial stages of middle adolescence.
Because this
time period is more volatile for parent-child relationships
(Collins &
Lausen, 2006), our findings may be the result of the typical
turmoil found
within these relationships. Finally, both of our interaction
effects were
barely significant (.03 and .04). That fact, combined with a
huge sample
size, rendered our effect sizes very small.
Straus (1999) suggested that further research is needed to
identify
precursors of dating violence in order to design effective
prevention
strategies to reduce these inappropriate social behaviors. The
present
findings suggest that maternal relationships may be a link to
later violent
behaviors in intimate relationships, even if that link is a weak
one.

REFERENCES
Collins, W. A., & Lausen, B. (2006). Parent-adolescent
relationships. In P. Noller
& J. A. Feeney (Eds.), Close relationships: Function forms and
processes
(pp. 111-125). Hove, England: Psychology Press/Taylor &
Francis.
Foshee, V. A., Linder, G. F., Bauman, K. E., Langwick, S. A.,
Arriaga, X. B.,
Heath, J. L., McMahon, P. M., & Bangdiwala, S. (1996). The
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project: Theoretical basis, evaluation, design, and selected
baseline findings.
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 12(5), 39-47.
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aggression and
victimization in young adults’ romantic relationships:
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perceptions of parent, peer, and romantic relationship quality.
Social
Development, 11(1), 69-86.
Malik, S., Sorenson, S. B., & Aneshensel, C. S. (1997).
Community and dating
violence among adolescents: Perpetration and victimization.
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Munoz-Rivas, M. J., Grana, J. L., O’Leary, K. D., & Gonzalez,
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justification, and
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O′Keefe, M. (1997). Predictors of dating violence among high
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O′Keefe, M., & Treister, L. (1998). Victims of dating violence
among high
school students: Are the predictors different for males and
females?
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violence. Social
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O′Leary, K. D., & Smith Slep, A. M. (2003). A dyadic
longitudinal model of
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Adolescent
Psychology, 32 (3), 314-327.
O′Leary, K. D., & Smith Slep, A. M. (2008). Gender differences
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Roscoe, B., & Kelsey, T. (1986). Dating violence among high
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Reuterman, N. A. & Burcky, W. D. (1989). Dating violence in
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suburban, and urban teens. Journal of Adolescent Health, 27(5),
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Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Acknowledgements: This research was supported by Centers for
Disease Control
and Prevention Grant SU4-CCU414165-03. Portions of this
article were
presented at the 49
th
Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Psychological
Association, New Orleans, LA.
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