He Said, She Said: a Dyadic Perspective on Adolescent Conflict Management and Dating Violence

Physical dating violence is a widespread problem in adolescence, which often occurs during conflict escalation. Given that individual reports may be subject to many biases, including data from both partners is essential to yield a more accurate portrait of adolescent dating relationships. This study sought to examine within-dyad agreement rates as well as dyadic associations between both partners' conflict behaviors and physical dating violence using actor-partner interdependence modeling. The sample consisted of 126 different-sex adolescent couples (n = 252, girls: M_age = 17.34, SD = 1.39, boys: M_age = 17.98, SD = 1.65). Each partner independently completed an online questionnaire. The results revealed that boys and girls mostly disagree about what is going on within their relationship, and that the use of destructive conflict behaviors equally contributed to both partner's physical dating violence perpetration and victimization. Increasing youth's awareness of their own and their partner's behaviors during conflict is key in preventing conflict escalation, and ultimately reducing the incidence of physical dating violence.