title: Intimate partner violence in early adolescence: The role of gender, socioeconomic factors and the school.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Intimate partner violence (IPV) among adolescents is common worldwide, but our understanding of perpetration, gender differences and the role of social-ecological factors remains limited.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To explore the prevalence of physical and sexual IPV perpetration and victimisation by gender, and associated risk and protective factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Young adolescents (N=2 839) from 41 randomly selected public high schools in the Western Cape region of South Africa (SA), participating in the PREPARE study, completed a self-administered questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The participants' mean age was 13.65 years (standard deviation 1.01), with 19.1% (541/2 839) reporting being victims/survivors of IPV and 13.0% (370/2 839) reporting perpetrating IPV. Girls were less likely to report being a victim/survivor of physical IPV (odds ratio (OR) 0.72; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.57 - 0.92) and less likely to be a perpetrator of sexual IPV than boys (OR 0.33; 95% CI 0.21 - 0.52). Factors associated with perpetration of physical and sexual IPV were similar and included being a victim/survivor (physical IPV: OR 12.42; 95% CI 8.89 - 17.36, sexual IPV: OR 20.76; 95% CI 11.67 - 36.93), being older (physical IPV: OR 1.26; 95% CI 1.08 - 1.47, sexual IPV: OR 1.36; 95% CI 1.14 - 1.62 ), having lower scores on school connectedness (physical IPV: OR 0.59; 95% CI 0.46 - 0.75, sexual IPV: OR 0.56; 95% CI 0.42 - 0.76) and scoring lower on feelings of school safety (physical IPV: OR 0.66; 95% CI 0.57 - 0.77, sexual IPV: OR 0.50; 95% CI 0.40 - 0.62).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Physical and sexual IPV was commonly reported among young adolescents in SA. Further qualitative exploration of the role of reciprocal violence by gender is needed, and the role of 'school climate'-related factors should be taken into account when developing preventive interventions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, University of York, UK; Adolescent Health Research Unit, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa. amanda.mason-jones@york.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Amanda J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Mason-Jones
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Koker
authors.forename: Sander Matthijs
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Eggers
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mathews
authors.forename: Marleen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Temmerman
authors.forename: Els
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Leye
authors.forename: Petrus J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: De Vries
authors.forename: Hein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: De Vries