Between 2000 and 2010, Teen Dating Violence gained more recognition on the research and policy agenda. Before then, Adolescents were overlooked as population that suffer from relationship abuse. In 2010, the Senate passed resolution (S. Res. 373) to designate the month of February 2010 as a National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month, in efforts to stop teen dating violence (Offenhauer, P. & Buchalter, A. 2011).
Definition of Teen Dating Violence
There are different definitions among the research literature, however, a consensus in the literature agree that teen dating resembles adult domestic violence in the sense that the abuse behavior is use to control another person, using coercion (persuading someone to do something by force of threat) and power assertion (physical control and power over material resources). Moreover, this continuum of controlling and dominating acts cause some degree of harm.
Types of Teen Dating Violence
Physical abuse – Expert Vangie A. Foshee, list scratching, slapping, pushing, slamming or holding someone against a wall, biting, chocking, burning, beating someone up, and assault with a weapon as examples of physical abuse. Each of them varying on their degree of seriousness, going from mild, moderate, to severe.
Psychological/emotional or verbal abuse – includes insulting, criticizing, humiliating in front of friends, or berating a partner. Under psychological abuse are a variety of threating behaviors such as: threats to hurt a partner, threats to damage a partner’s possessions, throwing objects at a partner but missing, and starting but stopping short of hitting a partner. Further, psychological abuse includes emotional manipulation behaviors such as threating suicide, ignoring the partner, or threating to break up, or behaviors whose effect is to undermine the partner’s self-esteem and independence, e.g., attempting to isolate a partner from family, friends, or other potential support, or attempting to make a victim feel “crazy” by continually questioning a partner’s judgment.
Sexual abuse – Sexual abuse between adolescent partners can involve rape, attempted rape, and other forms of sexual coercion, including birth control sabotage (Rickert, Wiemann, Vaughan, and White, 2004). To the extent that “every act leading up to sexual intercourse can be classified as sexual abuse if it is without consent, painful, unprotected, or performed in a demeaning way” (Smith & Donnelly, 2001).
Teen Dating Violence can happen to any teen regardless of race, age, sexual orientation, religion, or gender, or socioeconomic backgrounds.
How to know if you are victim of Teen Dating Violence
- Does your partner get jealous when you go out or talk with others?
- Does your partner frighten or intimidate you?
- Does your partner put you down, but then tell you he/she loves you?
- Does your partner try to impose restrictions on the way you dress or your appearance?
- Have you been held down, shoved, pushed, hit, kicked or had things thrown at you by your partner?
- Are you afraid to break up with your partner because of fear for your personal safety?
- Has your partner forced or intimated you into having sex?
If you answered yes to any of these questions you may be a victim of teen dating violence (www.LoneStar.edu).
Resources for Victims of Teen Dating Violence
- The National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1.800.799.SAFE (7233) or 1-800-787-3224
- The National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC): 1-800-FYI-CALL
- The National Dating Abuse Helpline: 1-866-331-9474
- breakthecycle.org: Their mission is to engage, educate, and empower youth.
- loveisrespect.org: Provides information & resources on dating violence & healthy dating.
Sources:
Foshee, Vangie A., Karl E. Bauman, Fletcher Linder, Jennifer Rice, and Rose Wilcher. “Typologies of Adolescent Dating Violence: Identifying Typologies of Adolescent Dating Violence Perpetration.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 22, no. 5 (May 2007): 498-519.
Offenhauer, P. & Buchalter, A. (2011). Teen Dating Violence: A Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography. Washington, D.C.
Rickert, Vaughn I., Constance M. Wiemann, Roger D. Vaughan, and Jacquelyn W. White. “Rates and Risk Factors for Sexual Violence among and Ethnically Diverse Sample of Adolescents.” Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine 158, no. 12 (December 2004): 1132-1140.
Smith, Darcy M., and Donnelly, Joseph. “Adolescent Dating Violence: A Multi-Systemic Approach of Enhancing Awareness in Educators, Parents, and Society. Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community 27, no. 1 (2001): 53-64
