In case you missed it, an article in today’s NYTimes (“A Rise in Efforts to Spot Abuse in Youth Dating“) highlights the increased prevalence of violence in teenage dating relationships.  Here’s a quick and depressing glance at the stats:

  • According to a survey by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene showed that dating violence had risen by more than 40 percent since 1999, when the department began asking students about the problem.
  • Public health research indicates that the rate of such abusive relationships has hovered around 10 percent.
  • According to a survey last year of children ages 11 to 14 by Liz Claiborne Inc., a quarter of the 1,000 respondents said they had been called names, harassed or ridiculed by their romantic partner by phone call or text message, often between midnight and 5 a.m., when their parents are sleeping.
  • A study published last July in The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine found that more than one-third of the 920 students questioned were victims of emotional and physical abuse by romantic partners before they started college.
  • In the C.D.C.’s 2007 survey of 15,000 adolescents, 10 percent reported physical abuse like being hit or slapped by a romantic partner. Nearly 8 percent of teenagers in the survey said they were forced to have sexual intercourse.

The good news: “Last month, a group of Indianapolis organizations won a $1 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to help schools tackle the issue, part of $18 million in grants to 10 communities to help break patterns where children exposed to violence at home repeat it in their adult relationships.”

The bad news: There are no definitive national studies on the prevalence of abuse in adolescent relationships.

Clearly there is a need.  (AHEM – calling researchers!)