Studies examining the difference impacts of victimization and perpetration of dating violence by race and ethnic groups could also inform prevention programming. Future research can explore the impact these programs make on psychological dating violence, including cyber dating abuse. At this public university, more male students self-identified as gay compared with national adolescent sexual orientation surveys; this may have affected our physical and sexual abuse prevalence estimates.
Safe Dates is a school-based prevention program for middle and high school students that is designed to stop or prevent the initiation of dating violence victimization and perpetration. An evaluation of the program found that at the 4-year follow-up, adolescents in the program reported statistically significant decreases in rates of perpetration of psychological, physical, and sexual abuse, compared with youths in a control group. There were also statistically significant decreases in rates of physical abuse victimization for adolescents in the program, but there was no effect on sexual abuse victimization rates (Foshee et al., 2005). In addition, a meta-analysis by Wincentak, Connolly, and Card explored rates of perpetration of physical and sexual dating violence.
Within-subject comparisons indicate that the quantity of alcohol consumption is an important proximal risk factor for partner violence in substance-abusing women and their male partners. Findings highlight the importance of self-regulation in dating violence perpetration-particularly for those MuslimSingles with low average eBACs-and the need for varied intervention strategies, depending on one’s typical drinking pattern. A daily calendar analysis of substance use and dating violence among high risk urban youth. Wingood, G. M., DiClemente, R. J., McCree, D. H., Harrington, K., & Davies, S. L.
Violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation is another way in which sexual stigma can be expressed. In some countries, laws criminalize sexual and gender minorities directly or indirectly on the grounds of morality or the promotion of non-traditional values. This can result in physical punishment, the death penalty, arbitrary arrest and torture, ill-treatment in health facilities, and forced sterilization. Homophobic and transphobic violence may be physical or psychological, and it constitutes a form of GBV aimed at punishing those seen as defying gender norms . Eaton, D. K., Davis, K. S., Barrios, L., Brener, N. D., & Noonan, R. K. Associations of dating violence victimization with lifetime participation, co-occurrence, and early initiation of risk behaviors among US high school students.
Dating Violence Victimization and Alcohol Problems: An Examination of the Stress-Buffering Hypothesis for Perceived Support
These rates come primarily from surveys or studies that included nationally representative youth samples, rather than studies conducted in a single location. During adolescence, many youths enter their first romantic relationship (Goncy, Farrell, and Sullivan, 2016; Scott et al., 2011; East and Hokoda, 2014). In some of these romantic relationships, adolescents may experience teen dating violence, as either a perpetrator or a victim—and many as both (Basile et al., 2020; Taylor and Mumford, 2016; Ybarra et al., 2016). Such abuse or victimization can have significant impacts on many facets of a young person’s life, with long-term consequences that may last past the end of the relationships and well into their adulthood (Mendoza and Mulford, 2018; Scott et al., 2011; Exner–Cortens, Eckenrode, and Rothman, 2013).
Adolescent Dating Violence
Though there are no single factors or attributes that can predict involvement in dating violence, risk factors can be identified and targeted for prevention and intervention programs to reduce the likelihood of victimization or perpetration (Vézina and Hébert, 2007; Reppucci et al., 2013). A study of cyber dating abuse found there were differences between girls’ and boys’ abuse behavior and motivations to perpetrate this type of abuse (Reed et al., 2021). For example, boys were more likely than girls to perpetrate sexual abuse (e.g., pressuring their partners to sext and pressuring their partner to have sex or do other sexual things), while girls were more likely than boys to report that they monitored their partners’ whereabouts and activities. Physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, in their lifetimes.
For example, although experiencing dating violence could place adolescent girls at greater risk for substance use, substance use could place adolescent girls at greater risk to experience violence from dating partners (Silverman et al., 2001). One study by Olsen, Vivolo–Kantor, and Kahn examined the prevalence of physical and sexual teen dating violence victimization of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth compared with heterosexual youth. They found that LGB youths experience both physical and sexual teen dating violence at higher rates than heterosexual youths. Male LGB adolescents are especially at risk for victimization, more so than female LGB teens. Further, males who are unsure of their sexual identity experience the highest rates of teen dating violence, compared with LGB males and heterosexual males (Olsen, Vivolo–Kantor, and Kahn, 2020). Similarly, the 2019 YRBS found that LGB students and students unsure of their sexual identity had higher prevalence rates of both physical and sexual dating violence victimization than heterosexual students.
Substance Use and Disparities in Teen Dating Violence Victimization by Sexual Identity Among High School Students
Another study used data from theNational Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence to explore the co-occurrence of physical teen dating violence victimization with other forms of victimization. The study included a subsample of 1,680 youths, ages 12 to 17, from the NatSCEV . Approximately 6.4 percent of the sample reported being a victim of physical teen dating violence . The results showed that every victim of physical teen dating violence also reported at least one other type of victimization, including physical abuse by a caregiver, sexual victimization , or gang or group assault. The results from this research suggest that teen dating violence is closely related to other forms of violent victimization, and thus it may not be useful to research teen dating violence apart from other forms of violence . Females who reported both psychological and physical victimization also showed greater depressive symptomology and increased odds of suicidal ideation, smoking, and adult intimate-partner victimization.
Victimization Rates of Teen Dating Violence
Levy, S., Sherritt, L., Gabrielli, J., Shrier, L. A., & Knight, J. R. Screening adolescents for substance use—related high-risk sexual behaviors. Bailey, S. L., Pollock, N. K., Martin, C. S., & Lynch, K. G. Risky sexual behaviors among adolescents with alcohol use disorders. The results at Wave 3 also showed that females who reported only psychological victimization were more likely to experience increased odds of episodic drinking and adult intimate-partner victimization, compared with females who reported no victimization.
The research that does examine this type of dating violence has looked at the behavior in general or among acquaintances, and not in a dating relationship specifically (Mennicke et al., 2021; Smith–Darden, Reidy, and Kernsmith 2016). Evidence suggests that adolescents are more likely to stalk casual acquaintances than current or former dating partners, despite the majority of adolescents reporting being most afraid of being stalked by former partners (Fisher et al., 2014; Smith–Darden, Reidy, and Kernsmith 2016). A number of school based programs focusing on reducing violence in teen dating relationships and promoting healthy respectful relationships show promising results. The majority of these programs have focused on increasing students’ awareness and knowledge about dating violence, changing attitudes and norms that condone violence, and building conflict resolution and communication skills. Given that many of these prevention programs have only been short-term interventions, the results are particularly encouraging and demonstrate a potential to impact public health.
If we extrapolate our 6.2% conservative prevalence to all campuses, this translates into 13,985 undergraduates who, by self-report, could disclose being victims of sexual abuse by someone they dated in the past 12 months. And several studies have found that childhood exposure to maltreatment was a statistically significant predictor of both victimization and perpetration of dating violence (Hamby, Finkelhor, and Turner, 2012; Spencer et al., 2020; Stover, Choi, and Mayes, 2018). A 6-year longitudinal study, which included more than 1,000 high school students living in southeast Texas, examined which factors increased the risk for perpetrating physical and sexual teen dating violence (Cohen et al., 2018). The results showed that adolescents are more likely to perpetrate physical dating violence later in life if they had been the victim of maltreatment in their childhood. This study also found that witnessing domestic violence by their parents in the home predicted dating violence perpetration.