The distal relationship between risk factors in childhood and subsequent dating violence in late adolescence has not often been explored using longitudinal data. This study aims to shed light on the problem of dating violence by examining children’s backgrounds at age 7 and the link to the future involvement in dating violence at age 17 using the first and seventh waves of the Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood (z-proso, n = 644). The sample consists of 644 multiethnic adolescents (57.14% female, M = 17.47, SD = 0.37), mainly Swiss-born (90%), though more than half of their parents (60%) were born in another country. A latent class analysis was applied to identify three different profiles (a) zero (or minimal) involvement in teen dating violence, (b) perpetrators/victims of controlling behaviors, and (c) perpetrators/victims of controlling behaviors and of physical violence. Participants who were corporally punished and/or victims of bullying at age 7 were significantly more likely to belong to the controlling and physical violence profile than children in the non-violent class. These results suggest a certain chronicity of the effects of violent experiences in early childhood on the patterns of romantic relationships at 17 years old.

儿童时期的危险因素与随后的青春期后期约会暴力之间的远端关系并不经常使用纵向数据进行探索。本研究旨在通过研究儿童在 7 岁时的背景以及与未来在 17 岁时参与约会暴力的联系，利用苏黎世从童年到成年的社会发展项目的第一波和第七波来阐明约会暴力的问题（z-proso，n  = 644）。样本由 644 名多民族青少年（57.14% 女性，M  = 17.47，SD = 0.37)，主要在瑞士出生 (90%)，尽管他们一半以上的父母 (60%) 出生在另一个国家。应用潜在类别分析来确定三种不同的概况（a）零（或最小）参与青少年约会暴力，（b）控制行为的肇事者/受害者，以及（c）控制行为和身体暴力的肇事者/受害者。与非暴力班级的儿童相比，在 7 岁时受到体罚和/或欺凌受害者的参与者明显更有可能属于控制暴力和身体暴力。这些结果表明儿童早期暴力经历对 17 岁时的浪漫关系模式的影响具有一定的长期性。