Adolescents' internalizing symptoms predict dating violence victimization and perpetration 2 years later.

The aim of this longitudinal study was to examine bidirectional associations of adolescents' internalizing symptoms with dating violence . We conducted secondary analyses of the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development data ( = 974). Each adolescent completed items from the Conflict Tactics Scale (at ages 15 and 17 years) to assess in the past 12 months. Adolescents' symptoms of depression and general anxiety in the past 12 months were self-reported (at ages 15 and 17 years) using The Mental Health and Social Inadaptation Assessment for Adolescents. There were concurrent associations of adolescents' internalizing symptoms with dating violence Internalizing symptoms at age 15 years were positively associated with dating violence and 2 years later in both males and females, even after adjusting for baseline characteristics. However, neither dating violence victimization nor perpetration at age 15 years was associated with internalizing symptoms 2 years later. For males and females, internalizing symptoms put adolescents at risk for future dating violence . Interventions that target internalizing symptoms may have the potential to decrease subsequent dating violence.