NCJ Number
204953
Journal
Trauma, Violence, & Abuse Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2004 Pages: 123-142
Date Published
April 2004
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This article assessed the state of the research literature on teen dating violence, with attention to prevalence, gender distribution, and the effectiveness of prevention programs.
Abstract
The review found comparatively little research on partner violence among adolescents, particularly compared to the amount of research on intimate partner violence among adults. Although research has found dating violence to be a significant problem for teens, there is no consensus among researchers on the prevalence and gender distribution of violence between adolescent dating partners; two major sources of national data have yielded widely differing estimates. Studies that have examined dating violence among adolescents in urban areas tend to find comparably high prevalence rates. Similarly, urban residents are likely to experience all types of violence at a higher rate than suburban and rural residents. More boys have reported perpetrating sexual abuse than have girls (37 percent and 24 percent, respectively), but more girls reported perpetrating physical abuse of their partners than did boys (28 percent and 11 percent, respectively). Few studies have assessed the effectiveness of programs designed to prevent dating violence among adolescents, and existing studies do not provide conclusive evidence about the efficacy of such programs. Tentative findings are that a greater percentage of female program participants adopt attitudes against dating violence compared with boys. Another finding is that multi-session programming may have a positive impact on knowledge but not necessarily on attitudes, and some significant changes due to program influence dissipated over time. Implications of the findings from this literature review are drawn for practice, policy, and research. 43 references