A new study
says that up to a third of U.S. teens have experienced either psychological
or physical violence in dating relationships with 12 percent reporting
that they had been the object of physical violence.
"We know already
that partner violence spikes in young adulthood, but we don't really know
what leads to it," investigator Carolyn Halpern, assistant professor
of maternal and child health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill School of Public Health, told United Press International.
"We looked at
adolescence to see if there are early patterns that continue into early
adulthood. We are testing the hypothesis that domestic violence that shows
up in adulthood may begin within adolescent dating experiences."
The research
appears in the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
A total of
6,897 adolescents participated in the study, using a computer to anonymously
answer survey questions. Each reported having an opposite-sex romantic
relationship in the 18 months preceding the survey. The subjects were selected
from a group of 15,000 teens who completed questionnaires during the 1994-95
school year. The survey was part of the National Longitudinal Study of
Adolescent Health, also known as the Add Health project, the largest U.S.
research project on teen health to date.
Researchers
asked 7th through 12th graders whether a dating partner had called
them names, insulted them, treated them disrespectfully, sworn at them
or threatened them with violence.
These actions
are defined in standard research literature as "psychological violence."
They were also
asked about physical violence like pushing, pulling or being the
target of a dangerous thrown object.
"Very few kids
reported physical violence without reporting psychological violence too,"
Halpern said. "About 12 percent reported physical violence, usually accompanied
by psychological violence. Ten percent reported being pushed, and 3 percent
reported having had something thrown at them. Twenty percent reported psychological
violence only."
"The two go
hand in hand," Deborah Capaldi, senior scientist at the Oregon Social Learning
Center in Eugene, told UPI, "People who are aggressive and (verbally) unskilled
tend to be both verbally and physically aggressive with their partners.
It's not absolutely clear that the psychological aggression comes first,
developmentally. But the two go together and are predicted by anti-social
behavior in childhood for both boys and girls."
Dismissing the
concept that certain populations are inherently more violent, Halpern said,
"There was no notable difference in results between ethnic and racial groups.
It's a false assumption for parents to think that boy-girl violence will
happen among 'kids over there' but 'not with my kid.'"
Challenging
the notion that teen boys are more violent than girls, Halpern said, "In
terms of gender, girls and boys reported similar rates of violence. Girls
reported more often than boys that they had been insulted or treated
disrespectfully in front of friends. Notably, African-American and
Asian/Pacific Islander-American boys reported twice as much abuse from
girlfriends as Caucasian boys. Students in larger schools reported more
psychological and physical violence than those in smaller schools."
The research
team noted that the combined results of this study and previous research
show that rates of violence in close male-female relationships more
than double between adolescence and young adulthood. "Since virtually
everyone in this adolescence study who reported physical violence also
reported psychological violence, it seems reasonable to suggest that teen
psychological violence could be a precursor of the physical violence
we see in young adult couples," Halpern said.
"These kids
were selected in the mid-90's. As part of the Add Health project, we are
now following up with them to survey the levels of violence within their
relationships as they approach or enter early adulthood."
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Copyright 2001 by United
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