Principal Aims: The present study is designed to increase knowledge about the long-term effect of exposure to domestic violence and the developmental course of externalizing and internalizing outcomes across emerging adulthood (approximately 17 to 22 years). Using prospective longitudinal data, it explores some critical questions. 1) What is the common growth pattern of depressive symptoms and antisocial behavior across emerging adulthood? 2) Does exposure to domestic violence predict the developmental growth of depressive symptoms and antisocial behavior across emerging adulthood controlling for other risk factors? 3) Are there significant gender differences in children's response to family violence? 4) Are there longitudinal relationships between depressive symptoms and antisocial behavior over time?

Sample and Methods: Data for this research are from the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS). Youth's antisocial behavior is measured at waves 7 through 12 by scoring 17 offenses as being present or absent at each wave in this study. Youth's depression across emerging adulthood is based on the 14-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depressive Scale (CES-D). The Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) is used to assess intimate partner violence (IPV) deriving from parents' interviews. Adolescent maltreatment, gender, race/ethnicity, parent education, caregiver transition and poverty were used as control variables. Latent curve models were estimated using Mplus to analyze the research questions.

Findings: There was substantial individual variability in the both initial level and mean growth rate of depressive symptoms. The mean trajectory of depressive symptoms significantly decreased across emerging young adulthood. While exposure to IPV did not predict the initial level of depressive symptoms, it predicted maintenance of elevated depressive symptoms over time. Although the variance in the growth rate of antisocial behavior was very small, the mean trajectory of antisocial behavior slightly decreased over time. However, exposure to IPV did not predict developmental trajectories of antisocial behavior. Rather, adolescent maltreatment was related to antisocial behavior over time. In addition to the domestic violence effects, the current research found that there are contemporaneous or short-term relationships between depressive symptoms and antisocial behavior over time. Implications for social work, limitations of the study, and recommendations for future studies are presented.