One in Three American Youth Victims of Dating Violence: Study

A new research states that one in three American youths are victims of dating violence and one in three accept they have committed violence toward a date.

"Adolescent dating violence is common among young people. It also overlaps between victimization and perpetration and appears across different forms of dating abuse," according to Michele Ybarra, MPH, PhD. She is with the Center for Innovative Public Health Research, based in San Clemente, Calif. 

For this study, the researchers examined the data of 1,058 youth collected in 2011-2012. The youngsters were a part of the Growing Up with Media Study. According to the study, dating violence is defined as physical, sexual or psychological/emotional violence.

On studying the data the researchers realized that  41 percent of the girls had been victims of violence and 35 percent of the girls had committed dating violence at some point of time during the relationship. On the other hand 37 percent of the boys claimed to have been victims of dating violence and 29 percent reported being the perpetrator. There were nearly 29 percent girls and 24 percent boys who reported being both victims as well as perpetrator in same or different relationships.

When compared to boys, girls were more likely to say they were victims of dating violence. And boys were more sexually violent towards their date when compared to girls. Both girls and boys equally experienced psychological dating violence.

A separate presentation by Sabina Low, PhD, Arizona State University, and Dorothy L. Espelage, of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, focused on the association between bullying and teen dating violence.

"Both boys and girls who engaged in high rates of bullying toward other students at the start of the study were seven times more likely to report being physically violent in dating relationships four years later," said Espelage, principal investigator on the project. "These findings indicate that bully prevention needs to start early in order to prevent the transmission of violence in dating relationships."

The study was presented at the American Psychological Association's 121st Annual Convention.