Psychological and physical dating violence perpetrated by pregnant and parenting Latina adolescents.

The purpose of this study was to examine predictors of psychological and physical dating violence perpetratedby 126 pregnant and parenting Latina adolescents. We found 85.7% had perpetrated at least one act of psychological abuse and 47.6% had perpetrated at least one act of physical abuse against the father of their child in the past 3 months. When examining predictors of psychological dating violence, we found that Latina adolescents who engaged in less positive communication patterns with their parents as well as those who were both the victim and perpetrator of physical abuse within their dating relationships were more likely to perpetrate psychological abuse. When examining predictors of physical dating violence, we found that Latina adolescents who perpetrated psychological abuse against the father of their child were also more likely to perpetrate physical abuse.