Background Adolescent dating violence is a major public health problem, documented recently and observed in line with the ecological model factor on different levels of influence. The study objective was to examine the risk factors such as: substance use, self-esteem, hostility, conflict resolution skills, gender stereotypes and acceptance of violence for dating violence victimization among two age groups of adolescents: middle and late adolescence.

Method The convenient sample of 850 students from which 410 (48.2%) students from middle adolescence recruited from the general/vocational high schools, and 440 (51.8%) students in the period of late adolescence selected from the 11 faculties from Ss Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. The participants responded to 7 self-administrated questionnaires that measure: dating violence victimization, substance use, self-esteem, hostility, conflict resolution skills, gender stereotypes and acceptance of violence (Safe Dates Scale). Informed consent and parent consent were provided for adolescents below 18 years in advance. The Cronbach’s Alpha of included scales varied from 0.72 to 0.80. Statistical analysis involved descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression.

Results A binary logistic regression analysis performed has shown that substance use (β=0.131, p<0.01) and acceptance of violence (β=0.101, p<0.05) are significant predictors for dating violence victimization in the group of middle adolescents. Among the group of students in late adolescence, it was found that acceptance of gender stereotypes significantly predicted dating violence victimization (β=0.066, p<0.001), as did hostility (β=0.027, p<0.001). Dating violence victimization is significantly distinguished by the predictors: substance abuse and acceptance of violence for the middle adolescence while in late adolescence predictors are gender stereotypes and hostility.

Conclusions More research needs to be done to explore the impact of various risk factors on dating violence victimization in developing of evidence based preventive programmes targeting adolescents.