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Healthy Teen Relationships FAQs

What is teen dating violence?
How frequent is teen dating violence?
Who are the victims of teen dating violence?
What are additional health concerns for victims of teen dating violence?

What is teen dating violence?

Dating violence refers to a pattern of actual or threatened acts of physical, sexual and/or emotional abuse perpetrated by an adolescent against a current or former dating partner. Abuse may include insults, coercion, social sabotage, sexual harassment, threats and/or acts of physical or sexual abuse. The abusive teen uses this pattern of violent and coercive behavior, in a heterosexual or homosexual dating relationship, in order to gain power and maintain control over the dating partner.

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How frequent is teen dating violence?

In a nationwide survey, 9.8 percent of high school students report being hit, slapped, or physically hurt on purpose by their boyfriend or girlfriend in the 12 months prior to the survey. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey).

About 1 in 5 women and nearly 1 in 7 men who ever experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner, first experienced some form of partner violence between 11 and 17 years of age (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey).

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Who are the victims of teen dating violence?

The majority of information gathered over the years indicates that teen dating violence, like adult domestic violence, involves male on female violence in most cases (Levy, 1991; Foshee, 1996; Silverman, J. et al, 2001). Teen girls, significantly more often than boys, report that they experience severe violence (Molidor, C. & Tolman, R., 1998). Teen mothers are at a high risk for violence from their partners during both pregnancy and the postpartum period (Harrykissoon, Rickert & Wiemann, 2002).

Just as with adult battered women, victims of teen dating violence come from all walks of life, all races, all socioeconomic backgrounds and all religious communities.

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What are additional health concerns for victims of teen dating violence?

Teen girls experiencing dating violence are at increased risk for substance abuse, eating disorders, risky sexual behavior, sexually-transmitted disease, pregnancy and suicide (Silverman, Raj, Mucci & Hathaway, 2001).

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