Dr Abigail Sheed1,2, Dr Maddison Riachi1,2, Ms Rachelle Eddy1, Professor Troy McEwan1, Distinguished Professor James Ogloff1, Dr Michael Trood1
1Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia, 2Court Services Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Biography:
Dr Abi Sheed is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, with affiliations to Swinburne University’s Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science, Victorian Children’s Court Clinic, and the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety. Her research centres on the topics of youth family violence and antisocial behaviour, child maltreatment, risk assessment, and intervention. She has particular research and clinical interests in understanding, assessing and treating child and youth problem behaviour – including violent, sexual, and general criminal behaviour – and the application of research to policy and practice.
Abstract:
Intimate partner abuse (IPA) among adolescents represents a significant and increasingly recognised social and public health problem. Much of the research to date has focused on understanding and preventing the phenomena among relatively low-risk community samples. It remains unclear whether risk and protective factors identified for the general adolescent population are applicable to high-risk youth, such as those involved in the youth justice system. While some research examining IPA among justice-involved adolescents exists, the largely cross-sectional nature of the evidence base has impeded our ability to establish temporal relationships between key risk/protective factors and the young person’s abusive behaviour.
This presentation describes the results of a systematic review of longitudinal studies examining risk and protective factors for IPA among justice-involved adolescents (under 18 years old). To establish the temporal relationship between these factors and subsequent IPA, longitudinal studies that measured risk or protective factors before adolescent family violence outcomes were included. The review therefore details the strongest available evidence on the factors associated with IPA among this population. This presentation will also discuss the implications of these findings for risk assessment, intervention, and policy development.