Physical Dating Violence Surprises
Research into teen physical dating violence in the last few months has exposed some surprises, and some scope for hope.
For instance:
- One study shows male and female adolescents are equally victims of physical dating violence,
- Dating violence and sexual assault is associated with suicide attempts among urban teens
- Psychiatrists could improve their screening for teen dating violence,
- Victims of child maltreatment are more likely to perpetrate youth violence,
- Aggression in adolescents is influenced by siblings,
- Teen girls report abusive boyfriends try to get them pregnant, but
- A Professor says the benefits of online interaction for teens outweigh the danger.
According to research presented at the American Public Health Association’s 135th Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. today, physical dating violence (PDV) affects almost one in every 11 adolescents.
The study, which looked at data from the 2005 National Youth Risk Behavior Study, also found that contrary to common general perception, males and females equally report being victims of PDV.
Also significant among the findings was that certain behaviors are associated with being a victim of PDV. For both male and female adolescents, current sexual activity, alcohol use, physical fighting, sexual victimization and suicidal thoughts were significant predictors of PDV.
Poor body image was a significant predictor of PDV in females but not in males, whereas illicit drug use was a significant predictor in males but not in females.
So PDV has not only been quantified, but significant predictors have also been identified. Which may be more important than was initially considered, given that such behavior can now be directly linked to violent death.
A report in the June issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, said that dating violence among urban teen females and lifetime history of sexual assault among urban teen males may be associated with suicide attempts.
“Suicide is the third leading cause of death in adolescents,” according to background information in the article. “In 2003, 6.5 per 100,000 US teenagers aged 14 to 19 years committed suicide. In 2005, more than 8 percent of high school students reported one or more suicide attempts in the previous year.
Childhood sexual assault has been linked with depression, alcohol use and violence, making it a likely risk factor for a suicide attempt.
“Dating violence has also been shown to be associated with depressive symptoms and multiple health-compromising behaviors,” the authors write.
The good news is that there is scope to cut off such dire consequences at the pass. Even though dating violence is common amongst teens, less than a quarter of US child and adolescent psychiatrists report consistently screening for it.
“We found that although most child and adolescent psychiatrists screen for other risk behaviors such as suicide and drug use, only 21 percent screened for dating violence,” says lead author Larry K. Brown, MD, with the Bradley Hasbro Children’s Research Center and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
This is important, the authors say, because dating violence is common among teens and over one half of child and adolescent psychiatrists reported identifying it in the past year. One quarter of female adolescents are reported to have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by a dating partner.
Dating violence includes verbal and physical violence and forced sex, but studies suggest that spontaneous disclosure of details about romantic relationships are infrequent, so clinicians need to take the lead in initiating this discussion.
The forced sex aspect is also an important predictor, as teen girls report abusive boyfriends often try to get them pregnant.
“Physicians are trained to think about domestic violence in adult terms,” said Elizabeth Miller, a physician trained in both adult and pediatric medicine who specializes in treating adolescents.
“Our study suggests that health-care providers who come in contact with teens, especially those seeking pregnancy testing and emergency contraception, should ask about the possibility of abuse in the relationship and specifically whether the young woman’s partner may be trying to get her pregnant.”
In other parts of the world, welfare payments available to pregnant girls are often the motivator, and violence is routinely used to teenaged partners pregnant.
Some people are caught in a cycle of violence, perhaps beginning with their own abuse as a child and continuing into perpetration or victimization as an adult. To interrupt this cycle, it is important to understand how childhood experiences are related to behavior later in life.
In a paper published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers examined how forms of child maltreatment victimization and youth violence and young adult intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration or victimization are interrelated.
The authors state that these findings reinforce the commonly held views that preventing child maltreatment may be key to preventing future perpetration of youth violence, and that interventions targeting youth violence may also serve to prevent later IPV perpetration or concurrent dating violence.
Another indicator is that aggression in adolescents is influenced by siblings. Sibling order and gender have effects on children’s and adolescents’ aggression.
Having a brother or highly aggressive sibling of either gender has been linked to greater increases in aggression over time.
In sum, the presence of both older and younger siblings influences the development of aggressive behavior in adolescence. Having a brother or a highly aggressive sibling of either gender can lead to greater increases in aggression over time.
Interestingly, the main focus of [tag]physical dating violence[/tag] reporting has been on Internet-related incidents. Yet Brendesha Tynes, a professor of educational psychology and of African American studies at University of Illinois, says that the benefits of online interaction for teens outweigh the danger.
Instead of trying to close down or closely monitor teenagers’ access to social networking, chat rooms and discussion boards online, Tynes suggests in her “Safety Gone Wild?” essay that “the first line of defense should be teens themselves. Increasingly, tech-savvy adolescents are aware of the risks in online socializing and are developing their own strategies for staying safe in cyberspace.”
To build on that awareness and sophistication, she suggests that parents and educators maintain an open and honest dialogue with teens about the dangers and potential benefits of the Internet. They can also actively encourage and assist teens to learn about and implement privacy settings in social networking spaces such as MySpace and Facebook.
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