Longitudinal Estimation of Exposure to Family Violence Predicting Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms and the Co-Occurrence During Early Adolescence

Prior literature has suggested that following exposure to family violence, adolescents can develop internalizing and externalizing symptoms, including bullying perpetration and depressive symptoms. However, incongruities suggest that exposure to family violence is not a consistent precipitating event associated with bullying perpetration and depressive symptoms. Therefore, using latent growth models, the current study applied the intergenerational transmission of violence and emotional security theories to investigate the developmental co-occurrences of depressive symptoms and bullying perpetration and longitudinal effects of exposure to family violence on bullying perpetration and depressive symptoms across four time points in middle school (i.e., from grades 6 to 8; n = 1,585; M age = 11.23 in grade 6; SD = .45). Consistent with expectations, results of the latent growth models indicated that exposure to family violence was positively associated with adolescents’ concurrent bullying perpetration and depressive symptoms. These effects were evident across the middle school years. Implications are discussed.