Despite the increasing influence of peers during adolescence, adults continue to play a significant role in impacting the lives of adolescents. Adolescents’ relationships with caring adults are associated with a host of positive outcomes, including improved psychosocial, educational, and behavioral outcomes, and reduced problem behaviors. However, research has not explored the influence of relationships with caring adults on adolescent interpersonal violence (AIV) risk. The aim of this paper was to examine the associations between the presence of an important adult (i.e., an adult youth can go to if they need help with a problem or decision) and youth reports of AIV victimization and perpetration. Participants included 2,173 youth (53.5% female, 76.0% White) in grades 7-10 who participated in a multiple baseline study of a youth-led sexual violence prevention project. Data from the second baseline survey were used to conduct eight binary logistic regression models to test the association between the presence of an important adult and each of the victimization and perpetration types (i.e., any, bullying, sexual harassment, sexual and dating violence). Results showed that youth who reported having an important adult reported significantly lower likelihood of reporting any victimization and perpetration, bullying victimization and perpetration, and harassment victimization and perpetration. There were no significant associations between the presence of an important adult and sexual and dating violence victimization and perpetration. Given the potential for relationships with important adults to protect against some forms of AIV victimization and perpetration, prevention strategies should include connecting youth with important, caring adults and training such adults to help promote attitudinal and behavior shifts that foster AIV prevention.

尽管同龄人在青春期的影响越来越大，但成年人继续在影响青少年的生活方面发挥着重要作用。青少年与有爱心的成年人的关系与许多积极的结果有关，包括改善社会心理、教育和行为结果，以及减少问题行为。然而，研究尚未探讨与有爱心的成年人的关系对青少年人际暴力 (AIV) 风险的影响。本文的目的是检查重要成人（即，如果他们需要帮助解决问题或决定时可以去）的存在与 AIV 受害和犯罪的青少年报告之间的关联。参与者包括 2,173 名青年（53.5% 为女性，76. 0% 白人）在 7 至 10 年级参加了一项由青年领导的性暴力预防项目的多基线研究。来自第二次基线调查的数据用于进行八个二元逻辑回归模型，以测试重要成年人的存在与每种受害和犯罪类型（即任何、欺凌、性骚扰、性暴力和约会暴力）之间的关联。结果表明，报告有重要成年人的青少年报告的任何受害和犯罪、欺凌受害和犯罪以及骚扰受害和犯罪的可能性显着降低。重要成人的存在与性暴力和约会暴力的受害和实施之间没有显着关联。