Miller-Day said she couldn’t speculate as to why teen dating violence is so pronounced in Orange County.
She pointed out that when the definition is expanded to include psychological aggression, a lot more people will be included.“However, you don’t want to lessen emotional and psychological impacts; those can leave scars that last longer than physical abuse,” Miller-Day said.
Researchers then narrowed the group down to 206 based on whether the subjects had dated in high school or not.
Findings showed that 69% of the subjects who attended Orange County high schools reported some kind of dating violence during their teenage years.
Ponce said the group’s employees were noticing that teen dating violence appeared — at least anecdotally — to be pervasive.
In particular, the nonprofit wanted to know the full extent of teen dating violence, which, in the group’s definition, includes psychological, emotional and cyber abuse.
For more info on this important subject, check out these additional resources: [2]Grunbaum JA, Kann L, Kinchen S, et al. Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance—United States, 2003.
Teenage relationship abuse is when there is actual or threatened abuse within a romantic relationship or a former relationship.
Michelle Miller-Day, a Chapman University communication studies professor and co-author of the study, said that before their research, there were very few studies that looked at teen dating violence with the inclusion of those forms of abuse.
The majority of studies generally define violence as physical or sexual.
Teen dating violence is a serious problem affecting adolescents across the nation, and it is an issue that often goes overlooked or unrecognized.
February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness month, and we’re joining the cause to get the word out about what teenagers, parents, teachers, and community members can do to be aware of and prevent teen dating violence.
Teen dating violence tended to begin at 15½ years old, but could start as young as age 11.