If this isn’t scary, I don’t know what is: Studies and surveys have found that between 10 and 30 percent of teens get abused or harassed while they’re dating. And much of this abuse is taking place via technology–through cell phones or on the Internet.
In a Jan. 4 article on the subject, the New York Times cited some very chilling statistics. The Times said that a survey conducted last year by Liz Claiborne, Inc. found that 250 out of 1,000 respondents said they’d been called names, harassed, or ridiculed by their partners by phone call or text message.
Another study, published last July in The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, found that, of 920 students questioned, more than one-third were abused by their romantic partners, either emotionally or physically, before they started college.
And a survey conducted in 2007 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that 10 percent of 15,000 adolescents were either hit or slapped by a romantic partner.
Worst of all, several teen girls have been killed at the hands of their boyfriends.
Luckily, states and communities are trying to do something about this disturbing problem, with new efforts to educate about dating abuse or make it easier to do something about it.
Here’s the problem, though: According to one researcher quoted in the Times, Dr. Elizabeth Miller, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine at the University of California, Davis, “Few adolescents understand what a healthy relationship looks like.” And sometimes teens are too embarrassed to say anything about their abuse.
Here’s what’s NOT healthy: Relentless texting or phoning. Efforts to control what you wear. Insults. Forced sex.
There are some very good websites that describe dating abuse, like www.thesafespace.org and www.loveisrespect.org. It’s so important to make sure that if you’re in a relationship, it’s a healthy one.
All of us at BodiMojo want teens to be healthy — in body, in mind, in spirit. And in dating. Take care!
– Karen Feldscher, a mom who cares
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