THE INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION OF VIOLENCE, REJECTION SENSITIVITY, AND THE IMPACT OF SELF-REGULATION: A MECHANISM STUDY OF ADOLESCENT DATING ABUSE EVAN J. BASTING Bachelor of Arts in Psychology Cleveland State University May 2019 Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree MASTER OF ARTS IN PSYCHOLOGY at the CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY May 2021 We hereby approve this thesis for EVAN J. BASTING Candidate for the Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology degree for the Department of Psychology And the CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY’S College of Graduate Studies by Thesis Chairperson, Liz Goncy, Ph.D. Department & Date Methodologist, Ilya Yaroslavsky, Ph.D. Department & Date Thesis Committee Member, Shereen Naser, Ph.D. Department & Date Date of Defense: May 5th, 2021 THE INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION OF VIOLENCE, REJECTION SENSITIVITY, AND THE IMPACT OF SELF-REGULATION: A MECHANISM STUDY OF ADOLESCENT DATING ABUSE EVAN J. BASTING ABSTRACT The association between experiencing parent-to-child aggression and later dating abuse (DA) in adolescence is well-supported by previous empirical findings and theoretical frameworks, including the intergenerational transmission of violence theory, social learning theory, and relationship continuity theory. Less is known about what underlies this association. Among a sample of high school students, this study tested the hypothesis that rejection sensitivity would mediate between parent-to-child aggression and adolescent DA. Additionally, this study hypothesized that greater self-regulation would buffer the association between rejection sensitivity and adolescent DA. Although rejection sensitivity did not independently mediate between parent-to-child aggression and DA, self-regulation interacted with rejection sensitivity in predicting DA. I found that among respondents with low levels of rejection sensitivity, self-regulatory deficits significantly predicted greater DA, whereas high rejection sensitivity scores were related to higher DA regardless of one’s self-regulation scores. These findings suggest that rejection sensitivity and self-regulation are closely related in their association with DA. Assessing for and addressing rejection sensitivity when increasing self-regulation is imperative for DA prevention and intervention. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………...iii LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………....vi LIST OF TABLES..……………………………………………………………………...vii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 1.1 DATING RELATIONSHIPS IN ADOLESCENCE ................................................................ 3 1.2 REJECTION SENSITIVITY AND DA ............................................................................... 6 1.3 SELF-REGULATION ................................................................................................... 10 II. CURRENT STUDY .................................................................................................... 15 III. METHOD ................................................................................................................... 17 3.1 PROCEDURE .............................................................................................................. 17 3.2 MEASURES ................................................................................................................ 18 3.2.1 Demographics.................................................................................................... 18 3.2.2 Self-Regulation.................................................................................................. 18 3.2.3 Rejection Sensitivity ......................................................................................... 19 3.2.4 Adolescent DA .................................................................................................. 20 3.2.5 Parent-to-Child Aggression ............................................................................... 21 3.3 PARTICIPANTS ........................................................................................................... 22 3.4 DATA ANALYSIS PLAN ............................................................................................. 24 IV. RESULTS ................................................................................................................... 26 4.1 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS .......................................................................................... 26 iv 4.2 HYPOTHESIS TESTING ............................................................................................... 27 4.2.1 Does Rejection Sensitivity Mediation Between Parent-to-Child Aggression and DA? ............................................................................................................................ 27 4.2.2 Does Self-Regulation Moderate the Effect of Rejection Sensitivity on DA? ... 27 V. DISCUSSION .............................................................................................................. 29 5.1 IMPLICATIONS ........................................................................................................... 31 5.2 LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS ................................................................... 33 5.3 CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................... 35 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 37 APPENDIX A: SCALES AND MEASURES, DEMOGRAPHICS ................................................................. 51 B: SCALES AND MEASURES, SELF-REGULATION ............................................................. 53 C: SCALES AND MEASURES, REJECTION SENSITIVITY ..................................................... 54 D: SCALES AND MEASURES, ADOLESCENT DATING ABUSE ............................................. 57 E: SCALES AND MEASURES, PARENT-TO-CHILD AGGRESSION ......................................... 59 F: STATISTICAL ANALYSES AND RESULTS ...................................................................... 60 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Mediation Model ............................................................................................. 60 2. Mediated-Moderation Model .......................................................................... 60 3. Interaction Between Rejection Sensitivity and Self-Regulation ..................... 61 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Descriptive Statistics and Correlations for Study Variables ........................... 62 2. Standardized Mediation Model Estimates ...................................................... 62 3. Standardized Moderated-Mediation Model Estimates.................................... 62 vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Adolescent dating abuse (DA; also referred to as teen dating violence) is a serious public health concern, adversely impacting between 20% and 40% of U.S. youth across forms and increasing with age (Wincentak et al., 2017; Ybarra et al., 2016). Previous research has identified various modes in which DA manifests (Mulford & Giordano, 2008), yet most coalesce around three types: physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2016) define this phenomenon as physical, sexual, psychological, and/or stalking behaviors between two people in a close current or past relationship that can take place in person or electronically. Although DA is often hallmarked by co-occurring and reciprocal aggressive behaviors (Gray & Foshee, 1997; Sears et al., 2007), the two primary forms of DA are victimization and perpetration (Malik et al., 1997). These terms differ based on who inflicts the aggressive acts; perpetrators direct aggression toward their partner, whereas victims receive aggression from their partner. As mentioned, DA can arise in a variety of types (Mulford & Giordano, 2008). To differentiate between the two most prevalent DA types, physical and psychological abuse (Foshee et al., 2009), the CDC define physical abuse as “the intentional use of physical 1 force with the potential for causing death, disability, injury, or harm” (Breiding et al., 2015, p. 11) with examples of physical behaviors including pushing, grabbing, biting, choking, and punching. In contrast, psychological abuse is defined as the “use of verbal and non-verbal communication with the intent to harm another person mentally or emotionally and/or to exert control over another person” (p. 15) with examples including name-calling, degrading, coercion, threatening, and gaslighting. A contemporary and increasingly common mode of perpetrating DA is via technology (Picard, 2007). Recent estimates find that over two-thirds of high schoolers use technology (i.e., texting, social media) for at least half of their communication with their respective romantic partners (Nesi et al., 2017). Using technology to monitor, control, and verbally abuse a dating partner—sometimes called cyber DA—is proposed by some to be a distinct type of DA (Temple et al., 2016), whereas other researchers fail to distinguish cyber from psychological DA (Zweig et al., 2013). Nevertheless, these variations emphasize the need for research to include cyber DA. Although male and female adolescents perpetrate psychological and moderate physical types of DA at similar rates (Foshee et al., 2009), early involvement in DA brings detrimental consequences