A new study finds that dating during the teen years takes a violent turn for nearly 1 in 6 young people, with both genders reporting acts like punching, pulling hair, shoving, and throwing things.
One in Six Adolescents Visiting the ER Has Experienced Dating Violence
One in five girls and one in eight boys reported dating violence in the past year, of adolescents visiting the emergency department for any reason.
One in five girls and one in eight boys reported dating violence in the past year, of adolescents visiting the emergency department for any reason.
The findings, from the largest-ever study of the issue in a health care setting, suggests a need for health care providers to ask both young women and men about whether their relationships have ever turned violent, and to guide them to resources. The results are published online in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
"It's important to think about both genders when trying to identify teen dating violence, especially when there are other conditions we may be trying to assess in the health care setting," says Vijay Singh, M.D., MPH, MS, the study's lead author and a U-M clinical lecturer in the Departments of Emergency Medicine and Family Medicine.
Girls Subjected to Dating Violence as Teens Earn Less Later in Life
Being subjected to dating violence during their teenage years seems to affect a woman’s educational performance and earnings later in life, a new study reveals.
Being subjected to dating violence during their teenage years seems to affect a woman’s educational performance and earnings later in life, a new study reveals.
Relationships in adolescence set up patterns for adult relationships, he notes. Intervening with adolescents experiencing dating violence is crucial to prevent adult intimate partner violence.
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Dating Violence in Teen Years Can Have Lasting Impact Well into Adulthood
A study found the lasting impact of teen dating violence and the risk of unhealthy behaviors even through adulthood.
A study found the lasting impact of teen dating violence and the risk of unhealthy behaviors even through adulthood.
While the researchers didn't ask about the gender of the teen's partner or about emotional or sexual abuse, the new data give new insight into teen dating violence that builds on school-based and smaller healthcare-based studies.
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Teen Victims of Dating Violence may Have Experienced Other Types of Violence too
Those teens who have experienced violence during dating may have been exposed to other forms of violence such as child abuse and sexual violence.
Those teens who have experienced violence during dating may have been exposed to other forms of violence such as child abuse and sexual violence.
Interestingly, teen girls who had sought emergency care for an intentional injury in the last year had twice the odds of reporting violence in their dating relationships.
That finding, Singh says, lends credence to the idea that the ED could be an important site for screening.
"We may ask 'How did you get that injury?,' but often if someone has been a victim of violence, they don't want to disclose that, and it takes repeated questioning in a sensitive way to find out more," he explains.
He notes that, last year, the top national panel for preventive health services recommended that all women between the ages of 14 and 46 be asked about relationship violence during health care visits.
But the lack of data on men as both victims and aggressors means there isn't a similar recommendation for screening them. The new study, he hopes, will add to the understanding of how dating violence affects young men.
"This affects people of both genders, so let's assess them both," Singh says. "Especially in the teen years, when young people are figuring out their relationship roles, changing partners more often than adults, and likely not living together."
His colleagues and co-authors on the new study, Maureen Walton, Ph.D., MPH, of the U-M Department of Psychiatry, and Injury Center director Rebecca Cunningham, M.D., of the U-M Department of Emergency Medicine, are testing a behavioral intervention tool in urban emergency departments that aims to help teens understand how to reduce violence of all kinds in their lives.
Singh also co-wrote guidance on screening for intimate partner violence for primary care providers, published in the June issue of Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice.
Singh urges all teens, and those who love them, to be aware of phone and online resources that can help them identify and respond to unhealthy tendencies in their relationships – and get help when things threaten to turn violent.
That includes the toll-free, 24-hour, multi-language National Domestic Violence Hotline, 800-799-SAFE and its website http://www.ndvh.org, as well as Love is Respect, http://www.loveisrespect.org, which focuses on teens.
Source-Eurekalert
