Dating Violence Linked to Other Health Risks

July 31 -- One in five girls has experienced physical or sexual violence from a dating partner, according to a new study.

The study, which appears in the Aug. 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, also says that abused girls are significantly more likely to engage in risky behavior.

"Girls who reported being victims of dating violence were four to six times more likely to get pregnant and eight to nine times more likely to have made a serious suicide attempt," said lead author Jay Silverman, assistant professor of health and social behavior at the Harvard School of Public Health.

The study did not conclude whether dating violence causes teens to engage in unhealthy behaviors, or whether already troubled girls are more likely to date violent partners.

Results Cut Across All Categories

Researchers looked at data from the 1997 and 1999 Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Surveys. They analyzed responses on a question and answer form filled out by 1,977 adolescent girls in grades 9 through 12 from 1997 and survey of 2,186 girls from a 1999 survey.

Girls were asked if they had ever been hit, slapped, shoved or forced into sexual activity.

The results cut across all socioeconomic and racial and ethnic categories.

Previous studies report the problem to be even worse. Other studies have said that as many as one in three girls will have been in an abusive relationship by the time she gets to college. Last year, Justice Department statistics revealed that the highest rates of violence were among people under 25.

"This study breaks the myth that domestic violence occurs only in the adult population," said Juley Fulcher, public policy director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. "We really need to take a good hard look at what we need to do to curb this trend."

Fulcher said that some much of the abuse adolescents encounter is similar to the physical and emotional abuse adults encounter.

Since girls who are abused tend to be embarrassed and fearful, a lot of abuse goes unnoticed or unrecognized, said Silverman, who is also the director of a violence protection program at Harvard.