The effects of pubertal timing on body image,school behavior,and deviance

Variation in the timing of pubertal maturation may result in behavioral differences among early, mid-, and late maturers. Using data from the National Health Examination Survey, a national probability sample of children and youth aged 12–17, we investigated the relationships between maturational timing and body image, school behavior, and deviance. In terms of body image, the early maturing boys were the group most satisfied with height and weight. The early maturing girls were most dissatisfied with weight, with 69% wishing to be thinner. This great dissatisfaction with weight reported by early maturing girls is probably not an affect of early maturation, but a concomitant of maturation in general. The majority of girls became dissatisfied with their weight as they matured, and females from the higher social groups were more likely to want to be thinner than females from lower groups. Thus, a normal developmental process is being viewed negatively by females and positively by males. Male early maturers more often had deviant behavior, but there were no consistent findings for girls. There was no effect of maturational timing on teacher reports of school absence, adjustment, popularity, need for discipline, or grade repetition.This research was supported by the Stanford Center for the Study of Youth Development and by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.Received M.D. from The Medical College of Pennsylvania.Received Ph.D. in anthropology from Stanford University.Received Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago.Received M.D. from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University.     

Satisfaction with body image for early adolescent females: The impact of pubertal timing within different school environments

During adolescence dramatic physical changes take place which the individual must incorporate into his or her evolving body image. The impact of different school environments on this incorporation process is explored using data on 225 White females from a longitudinal study. Differences in physical characteristics between early, middle, and late developers were assessed each year. The effects of pubertal timing on satisfaction with body image dimensions and self-esteem were then explored for sixth- and seventh-graders within different school environments. Reference group theory was used to examine three alternative hypotheses. Early versus late onset of menarche had different effects on certain aspects of satisfaction with body image, depending on the school environment. Results support the strength of the cultural ideal of thinness for women, but no other hypothesis had consistent support. The findings indicated the need to consider a multiplicity of factors in relation to specific body image dimensions.This study has been funded by NIMH grant R01 MH-30739 and a grant from the William T. Grant Foundation. In addition, the work of the second author has been supported by a Research Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health, #2 K02 MH-41688.Received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Current research interests include stress and coping in adolescence, the role of social relationships in problem behavior, and the effects of different school contexts.Received her Ph.D. from Columbia University. Research interests include the social and psychological effects of puberty and sex differences in adolescence.Received M. A. in clinical child psychology from Ohio State University. Main interests are developmental aspects of body-image and research on personality disorders.     

Individual and Sociocultural Influences on Pre-Adolescent Girls’ Appearance Schemas and Body Dissatisfaction

Appearance schemas, a suggested cognitive component of body image, have been associated with body dissatisfaction in adolescent and adult samples. This study examined girls’ weight status (BMI), depression, and parent, sibling, peer, and media influences as predictors of appearance schemas in 173 pre-adolescent girls. Hierarchical regression results indicated that appearance schemas scores were associated with girls’ level of depression, perceptions of parental influence on weight concerns, appearance related interactions with other girls, and awareness of media messages; perceptions of sibling influence on weight concerns and BMI were not independent predictors. In addition, appearance schemas were associated with girls’ level of body dissatisfaction. One implication of these findings is for prevention programs to focus on reducing the importance and value that girls place on appearance by targeting social influences, particularly parental influence, in order to reduce risk for adolescent body dissatisfaction and related risk behaviors.Doctoral candidate in Human Development and Family Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests are the development of disordered eating and body dissatisfaction from middle childhood through adolescence.Distinguished professor of Human Development and Family Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests are child and adolescent eating behavior.     

The Contribution of Emotion Regulation to Body Dissatisfaction and Disordered Eating in Early Adolescent Girls

To understand whether difficulties in emotional functioning distinguish between body dissatisfaction and disordered eating, a set of emotion regulation (i.e., negative emotion, emotional awareness, coping), demographic (i.e., age), and physical (i.e., BMI (Body Mass Index)) factors were assessed in 234 early adolescent girls, grades six to eight. Compared to younger girls, older girls had higher BMI and reported increased body dissatisfaction. Age, BMI, and negative affect predicted body dissatisfaction, whereas BMI, body dissatisfaction, and lack of emotional awareness predicted disordered eating. Further, girls who reported high levels of disordered eating reported experiencing increased levels of negative affect, greater difficulties with emotional awareness, and more difficulty coping constructively with negative emotion than girls who reported low levels of disordered eating. Results support the contention that body dissatisfaction, combined with difficulties in emotional awareness are related to disordered eating.Leslie Sim is an assistant professor at the Mayo Medical School, a Senior Associate at the Mayo Clinic, and Clinical Director of the Mayo Inpatient Eating Disorders Program. She received her Ph.D. from University of Maine in Developmental and Clinical Psychology. Her research interests include eating disorders, self-injurious behavior, and emotion regulation skills in children and adolescents.Janice Zeman is an associate professor at the College of William and Mary. She received her Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in Developmental and Clinical Psychology. Her research interests include children's and adolescents' emotion regulation skills particularly as they relate to maladaptive functioning with other research interests in parental and peer socialization of emotion.     

Body image satisfaction,dieting beliefs,and weight loss behaviors in adolescent girls and boys

Body image and weight loss beliefs and behaviors were assessed in 341 female and 221 male high school students. Estimates of body dissatisfaction varied depending on the measurement strategy used. Despite having similar weight distributions around the expected norm, girls were significantly more dissatisfied with their bodies than boys. Body Mass Index was positively related to body dissatisfaction in girls and boys, while higher exercise levels were related to higher body satisfaction in boys. Nearly two-thirds of girls and boys believed being thinner would have an impact on their lives, but the majority of girls believed this would be positive while the majority of boys believed this would be negative. Thirteen percent of female subjects reported using one or more extreme weight loss behavior at least weekly. Beliefs regarding the effectiveness of different weight loss measures were assessed. Weight loss behaviors in this Australian sample appear similar to comparable U.S. samples.Received Ph.D. from University of Tasmania. Main research interest in body image, weight loss behaviors, and eating disorders.Received Ph.D. from University of Connecticut. Main research interest in body image, eating disorders and weight loss behaviors.Dietitian degree from Melbourne University, Melbourne. Main research interest in eating practices and clinical outcome.M.D. from University of Melbourne, D.P.M. from U.K. FRC Psych. Main research interests in eating disorders.B.B.Sc.(Hons.) received from La Trobe University, Melbourne, B.A. received from University of Minnesota, Duluth. Main research interest in attitudes and attributions.B.A. Received from University of Minnesota, Duluth. Main research interest in adolescence and eating disorders.     

Adolescent depression: Why more girls?

Although there has been evidence for some time of a sex difference in depression, relatively little research has examined the developmental process by which women come to be at greater risk than men for depression. In this paper, the developmental pattern of depressed affect is examined over early and middle adolescence, with a special focus on the patterns of boys as compared to girls. In addition, a developmental model for mental health in adolescence is tested for its power in explaining the emergence of gender differences in depression. Longitudinal data on 335 adolescents randomly selected from two school districts were used to test the hypotheses. Results revealed that girls are at risk for developing depressed affect by 12th grade because they experienced more challenges in early adolescence than did boys. The sex difference in depressed affect at 12th grade disappears once early adolescent challenges are considered.This research was supported in part by grants MH30252/38142 to A. Petersen. We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of study participants and staff. Portions of this material were presented in a symposium at the 1988 meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, and one at the 1989 meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development.Received Ph.D. from University of Chicago in 1973. Research interest in biopsychosocial development in adolescence, with a focus on sex differences in mental health.Research interests include adolescent mental health, and parent and peer relationships.Received Ph.D. in psychology from The Pennsylvania State University. Research interests include development of affective and conduct disorders, especially sex differences in these problems.     

Body Dissatisfaction and Physical Development Among Ethnic Minority Adolescents

The present study examined the association between body dissatisfaction and adjustment, and the role physical development plays in this association, in an ethnically diverse sample of over 1100 urban, ninth grade boys and girls (M age = 14). More similarities than differences were found across ethnic groups: Caucasian, African American, Latino, Asian, and multiethnic boys reported similar areas of body dissatisfaction, levels of body dissatisfaction, and associations between body dissatisfaction and psychosocial maladjustment. For girls, only mean level differences were found with African American girls reporting lower levels of body dissatisfaction than girls from other ethnic backgrounds. Higher levels of body dissatisfaction predicted more psychological and social maladjustment for both boys and girls. For boys, faster development predicted stronger associations between feeling overweight and peer victimization. Feeling too small only predicted victimization if boys were actually low in physical development. For girls, physical development directly predicted less peer victimization, while perceived faster development predicted more victimization. Thus, it appears that physical development can protect both girls (directly) and boys (buffering against the negative effects of body dissatisfaction) from peer victimization, whereas perceived faster timing of development can exacerbate peer victimization.Adrienne Nishina conducted this research as an NIH postdoctoral fellow in the UCLA Department of Education. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human and Community Development at UC Davis. She received her PhD in clinical psychology from UCLA. Her major research interests include mental health in schools, adolescent peer relations, and ethnic diversity.Natalie Y. Ammon is a graduate student in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas, Austin. Her major research interests are at-risk youth and academic achievement.Amy D. Bellmore is an American Psychological Association/Institute of Educational Sciences Postdoctoral Education Research Training fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. She received her PhD in developmental psychology from the University of Connecticut. Her research interests include peer-directed aggression, ethnicity and ethnic contexts, and the development of interpersonal perception.Sandra Graham is a Professor in the Department of Education at the University of California, Los Angeles. She received her PhD degree in educational psychology from UCLA. Her major research interests are the academic motivation and social behavior of ethnically diverse adolescents in urban schools.     

Variables that discriminate bulimic from nonbulimic adolescent females

The present study identified variables that discriminated bulimic (N=71) from nonbulimic (N=71) adolescent females within a high school setting. A discriminant function analysis identified six variables that significantly differentiated these two groups. These variables included disturbed eating attitudes, negative perceptions of weight and body image, depressive symptomatology, and alcohol use. Post hoct tests indicated that, compared to the nonbulimic girls, the bulimic adolescents were significantly more depressed, viewed themselves as significantly more overweight, used alcohol significantly more frequently, possessed significantly more disturbed eating attitudes, had a significantly greater discrepancy between their current and ideal weight, and felt it was significantly more important to achieve this ideal weight. The implications of these findings for the etiology and early identification of bulimia in adolescence are discussed.Received Ph.D. from Kent State University. Research interest is applied clinical research.Received Ph.D. from University of Vermont. Research interest is behavioral medicine.     

Depressive symptomatology among very early maturing girls

This study investigated whether menarche is associated with depression when its onset is at the very early extreme of the normal age range. Girls who were postmenarcheal at the beginning of the sixth grade, comprising less than 10% of a sample of girls in that grade, were classified as very early maturers; their scores on the Beck Depression Inventory, short form (BDIs), were compared with those of their premenarcheal peers. Additionally, postmenarcheal seventh graders, who comprised 30% of a sample of girls in that grade, were compared to their premenarcheal peers on the BDIs. Results were that postmenarcheal sixth graders were significantly more depressed than their premenarcheal peers, but that postmenarcheal and premenarcheal seventh graders did not differ significantly. The results suggest that very early menarche is associated with higher levels of depression than more normative menarcheal timing.This research was supported by Grant 16034 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Some portions of the data were cited previously at meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development and the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research.Received Ph.D. from Clark University. Major interest is in clinical-developmental psychology. To whom reprint requests should be addressed.Received Ph.D. from Tufts University. Major interests are psychobiology and adolescent development     

Representation of the female body by early and late adolescent girls

A group of 153 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade girls and a group of 95 college women produced human figure drawings. Comparisons were made between early and late adolescents and, within the group of early adolescents, between pre- and postmenarcheal girls, of the frequency with which secondary sexual characteristics, namely, breasts, were explicitly depicted on the female figures. Early adolescents were found to represent breasts more explicitly than late adolescents. Parallel results were found for pre- and postmenarcheal girls in the seventh grade. The results suggest that early adolescents emphasize and are preoccupied with body parts whose changes signal the beginning of puberty, while later adolescents, being past the period of most rapid growth and change in body contour, have a more integrated body image.This research was supported in part by Wellesley College Faculty Development Awards to each of the two authors.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Clark University. Major interests are clinical psychology and personality development. Correspondence should be addressed to this author.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Tufts University. Major interests are psychobiology and adolescent development.     

The effects of delayed menarche in different contexts: Dance and nondance students

The premise that effects of maturational timing are mediated by social context is explored by comparing adolescent girls in dance and nondance schools. Because the dance student must maintain a relatively low body weight, being a late maturer (who is often leaner than an on-time maturer) is expected to be more advantageous to the dancer than to the student not required to meet a weight standard. Girls aged 14 to 18 were seen; 276 attended private schools and 69 attended national ballet company schools. AllSs were weighed and measured and asked questions about their secondary sexual development, weight-related concerns, eating concerns, adult sex-role expectancies, body image, emotional functioning, and family relationships. Menarcheal age was used to classify girls as early (before 11.5 years of age), on time (between 11.5 and 14 years), and late maturers (after 14 years). More dance than non-dance school students were late maturers (55% versus 29%). The dance students weighed less and were leaner, had higher eating scores, and had lower family relationship and impulse control scores than the comparison sample. Across groups, late maturing students weighed less, were leaner, and had lower diet and higher oral control scores than on-time maturers, with the differences more pronounced in the dance than nondance students. In addition, the on-time dancers had higher psychopathology, perfection, and bulimia scores and lower body image scores than the late maturing dancers. The findings are discussed in terms of a goodness of fit between the requirements of a social context and a person's physical and behavioral characteristics.This paper was prepared with the support of grants from the W. T. Grant Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Research Interests: Girls' psychological adaptation to pubertal change, biosocial aspects of female reproductive events, development in at-risk children and adolescents.     

Sex differences in depression and explanatory style in children

We report data from the first two years of a longitudinal study of depression, and explanatory style in children. Measures of these variables have been obtained from a group of elementary school children every six months since they were in the third grade. Results show that the boys consistently reported more depressive symptoms than the girls. This was particularly true for symptoms of anhedonia and behavioral disturbance. The boys also showed much more maladaptive explanatory styles than the girls. These results are discussed in light of previous studies of sex differences in children's attributions. Possible reasons for the expected switch in the sex differences in puberty are also discussed.Received Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania. Research interests are depression and emotion regulation.Received Ph.D. from New School for Social Research. Research interests are achievement and depression.Received Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania. Research interests are depression and explanatory style.     

Psychosocial Aspects of Body Mass and Body Image Among Rural American Indian Adolescents

This study examines the psychosocial risks associated with body weight (BMI) and body image in a southeastern, rural Lumbee American Indian community. A total of 134 adolescents (57% female) were surveyed over 2 years at ages of 13 and 15 years. On average, boys (55%) were more likely to be overweight or obese than were girls (31%). BMI was related to a variety of weight control efforts including onset and frequency of smoking, dieting, and body dissatisfaction. Body dissatisfaction was associated with peer relations, self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and somatization in adolescence. Longitudinally, psychological health, peer competence, and ethnic identity were associated with positive body image. In boys, early ethnic identification was associated with the development of later body image. Implications of findings for ethnic- and gender-specific interventions are discussed.On faculty at Tulane University. Received PhD in clinical and developmental psychology from the University of Minnesota. Major research interests are developmental psychopathology and personality, and diverse topics in American Indian mental health.Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. A graduate student in the developmental psychology. Received BS in psychology from Tulane University in 2004. Major research interests include developmental psychopathology, emotion regulation, and biological responses to stress.Department of Psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana. A doctoral student in developmental and school psychology at Tulane University. Received MS in psychology from Tulane University and BA in psychology from CUNY Hunter College. Major research interests are social and personality development, developmental psychopathology, minority mental health, and the impact of hearing loss on social and cognitive development.     

Weighing in on the Issue: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Influence of Selected Individual Factors and the Sports Context on the Developmental Trajectories of Eating Pathology Among Adolescents

Eating disorders, and related issues (e.g., body dissatisfaction, weight control behaviors), represent pressing and prevalent health problems that affect American adolescents with alarming frequency and potentially chronic consequences. However, more longitudinal research is needed to elucidate the developmental processes that increase or maintain risk for, and that protect against, eating- and weight-related problems among adolescents. Accordingly, the current study used longitudinal data from 1,050 male and female (68.0 %) adolescents (Grades 9–11)—the majority of whom were European Americans (72.2 %)—who participated in the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development to (a) describe trajectories of adolescents’ eating pathology and body dissatisfaction, (b) identify individual and contextual correlates of these pathways, (c) examine whether trajectories of eating pathology and body dissatisfaction related to adolescents’ depressive symptoms, and (d) elucidate whether sports participation moderated associations between specific trajectories of eating pathology and body dissatisfaction and adolescents’ depressive symptoms. Results suggest that the diverse pathways of eating pathology and body dissatisfaction that exist across middle adolescence, in combination with adolescents’ sports participation, have important implications for the positive and problematic development of our youth. In addition, the findings underscore the need to evaluate the interindividual differences that exist in regard to how sports participation may relate positively and negatively to developmental outcomes.     

Pubertal timing and grade effects on adjustment

Effects on adjustment of biological maturation and social timing were compared using data from a longitudinal sample of 335 young adolescents, who were followed from the sixth through eighth grades. Biological maturation was estimated from the relative timing of the adolescent growth spurt. Social timing was assessed by grade in school. Five adjustment constructs were examined: school achievement (course grades in five subjects), family relations (a 17-item scale), peer relations (a 10-item scale), body image (an 11-item scale), impulse control (an 8-item scale), and psychopathology (an 11-item emotional tone scale and an 11-item general psychopathology scale). All but one adjustment construct showed grade effects, but only three of the six constructs showed pubertal timing effects. There were no grade by pubertal timing effects. Although there were gender differences for some of the adjustment constructs, there were no gender by pubertal timing effects. The results are discussed in terms of the life-span developmental perspective.Received Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1973. Research interest is biopsychosocial development in early adolescence, with a focus on sex differences.Received Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Research interests are social development, biosocial interactions in early adolescence, and sex differences.     

Gender issues in the interface of family experience and adolescents' friendship and dating identity

This study focuses on the role of family experience in adolescents' conception of the self in the context of friendship and dating relationships. Three issues are addressed: the extent of sex differences in adolescents' friendship and dating identity, how links between family experience and friendship and dating identity might differ for males and females, and whether mothers and fathers play distinctive roles in such development. A sample of Caucasian two-parent families, each including an adolescent who was a high school senior, was observed in a family interaction task designed to elicit the expression and coordination of a variety of points of view. Each adolescent was also given an interview assessing exploration and commitment in friendship and dating identity. Only one sex difference was found in identity, with females more committed in their conceptions of dating relationships than males. The key finding of the study concerns the distinctive patterns of family interaction associated with friendship and dating identity. For females, separateness in family interaction was related to their friendship identity exploration, whereas for males, the links between family interaction and exploration all involved connectedness. The different contingencies may reflect the interplay between different societal patterns of support and restriction of males' and females' exploration.This work was supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD-92819 and HD-17983) and the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health and from the University Research Institute and the Institute of Human Development and Family Studies of the University of Texas at Austin.Received her Ph.D. in child psychology from the University of Minnesota. Research interests include the role of family and peer relationships in the development of individual and relational competence, and the interface of family, peer, and school contexts in the development of children and adolescents.Received his Ph.D. in child psychology from the University of Minnesota. Research interests include the role of the family in adolescent personality development and identity formation, career development, and adoptive family relationships.     

The experience of breast development and girls' stories about the purchase of a bra

Girls' experiences of secondary sexual characteristic development were explored via direct interview and protective techniques. In a pilot study (Study 1), 30 White middle to upper middle class 6th–8th-grade girls were interviewed about how they felt about breast and pubic hair growth, their comfort discussing these events, and their information acquisition. Breast growth was perceived as more important than hair growth, in part because the former is perceived as a more public event. Few girls reported intensely negative feelings to either change. Since responses to the direct questions were limited, 80 White 6th–9th graders were asked to tell a story (using a semi structured interview technique) about a picture of an adolescent girl, adult female, and adult male in which the adult female was taking a bra out of a shopping bag (Study 2). Affect, attitudes, and character alliances were coded. More girls attributed negative feelings to the father than to the mother character. Almost all girls describe the adolescent in the story as embarrassed. The daughter and father characters were described as uncomfortable more often than the mother character (50% vs. 10%). Positive maternal affect in the stories was associated with more advanced pubertal status, positive body images, more positive emotional tone, and lower anxiety scores. Affect ascribed to the father and daughter characters was less likely to be associated with girls' psychological functioning. Results are discussed in term sof the possible role of puberty upon parent-child relationships and communication.We wish to thank the W. T. Grant Foundation and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for their generous support of our research. This article was written while the first author was a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation; the support of the foundation is appreciated.Received Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.Received M.D. from Columbia University.     

Body image ideals of low-income African American mothers and their preadolescent daughters

Given the high incidence of obesity and obesity-related health problems among low-income African American women, it is both timely and significant to study factors that contribute to obesity in this population. The perception of current body size (body image) and desired body size (body image ideal) has been associated with the development of anorexia and bulimia in white adolescent girls. Body images and ideals may also be related to the development of obesity among African Americans adolescent girls. This study examined the body images and ideals of 27 low-income African American mothers and their 29 preadolescent daughters. Results suggest that there is a relationship between mothers' perceptions of their daughters bodies and their daughters' body images. Preadolescent, low-income, African American girls have normal weight ideals rather than the ultrathin ideals typically found among white girls. Normal weight girls have ideals that are heavier than their body images. This population may be less motivated than those with thinner ideals to engage in behaviors that would prevent the development of obesity during adolescence. Health promotion programs for this population should acknowledge cultural body weight standards.This study was funded by the American Heart Association of Metropolitan Chicago.Received B.A from the University of Pennsylvania. Research interests include cross-cultural studies of body image, eating disorders, health risk perceptions, and health promotion programs.Received Ph.D. from in Clinical Psychology from Long Island University. Research interests include obesity prevention, binge eating, and cultural differences in eating behavior.     

The transition to junior high school: Beliefs of pre- and posttransition teachers

The beliefs of 107 teachers who students have for mathematics the last year of elementary school are compared to the beliefs of 64 teachers the same students have for mathematics the first year of junior high school. As hypothesized, posttransition teachers trust students less, believe more strongly in controlling and disciplining students, and have a weaker sense of teaching efficacy than do pretransition teachers. There are no significant differences in beliefs about the nature of ability as a fixed trait. It is suggested that societal stereotypes about early adolescents may flourish in school settings that are exclusively for that age group, so that teachers believe these students are unlikely to make much academic progress and must be controlled.This research was made possible by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH31724) to Jacquelynne S. Eccles, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD17296) to Jacquelynne S. Eccles, and the National Science Foundation (BNS-8510504) to Jacquelynne S. Eccles and Allan Wigfield.Received Ph.D. in Education from the University of Michigan. Research interests are adolescent development, middle years education, teacher beliefs, and classroom processes.Received M.A. in Education from the University of Michigan. Research interests are adolescent development, classroom environments, and supporting beginning teachers.Received Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California at Los Angeles. Research interests are development of self-concept, subjective task value, interests, and activity preferences, especially during early and middle adolescence. Also investigating the impact of school and family experiences on these constructs.     

How Much Does School Matter? An Examination of Adolescent Dating Violence Perpetration

The purpose of this study was two-fold: (1) to identify how school factors were related to perpetration of dating violence among adolescents; and (2) to assess how these factors may reduce or exacerbate the relationship between parental domestic violence and adolescents’ perpetration of dating violence, while accounting for individual and family characteristics from early adolescence. Three waves of data from the Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study were used (N = 765; Ages 16–20 at Wave 3). Lagged Ordinary Least Squares multiple regression techniques were utilized to examine the link between perpetration of dating violence and school factors. Results are presented separately by adolescents’ sex and ethnicity-by-sex. Early involvement with antisocial peers and an increase in involvement with antisocial peers over time were linked to perpetration of dating violence for males, females, African-American females, and Hispanic males. Lack of school safety and academic difficulties during early adolescence exacerbated the impact of parental domestic violence exposure for African-American males and Hispanic males, respectively. Early school involvement, surprisingly, exacerbated this impact for Hispanic females. Implications for the prevention of perpetration of dating violence are explored.