Date SMART’s Impact on Aggression in System Involved Girls: Does Victimization Moderate Effects?

Aggression and victimization increase negative outcomes for legal system involved girls. While aggression is often enacted against multiple targets (e.g., peers, dating partners), most interventions only target one violence type (e.g., teen dating violence [TDV]). However, TDV shares risk factors with other violence forms; therefore, TDV-specific interventions may reduce other types of violence (e.g., general aggression). The current study explored the effects of a TDV intervention, Date SMART, on general physical and verbal aggression (i.e., aggression not tied to dating) in legal system involved girls (<i>N</i> = 239, <i>M</i>age = 15.57) and how victimization history (including sexual abuse) moderated treatment effects compared to a Knowledge Only (KO) group. Hierarchical restricted maximum likelihood linear mixed effect models evaluated differences in aggression from baseline to post-intervention and 3-, 6-, and 9-month follow-ups. Findings indicated that from baseline to post-intervention, verbal and physical aggression initially increased in Date SMART relative to KO, but then decreased at a greater rate in the Date SMART group than the KO group throughout follow-ups. Exploratory analyses indicated that victimization history moderated response to Date SMART and KO. Findings suggest that rates of multiple forms of violence can be reduced by Date SMART but may benefit from tailoring for peer relationships and victimization histories.