Psychological, physical, and electronic dating abuse can begin as early as seventh grade, with potentially serious consequences for individual growth, academic performance, and long-term health outcomes, a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation warns.
Based on a survey, Prevention in Middle School Matters: A Summary of Findings on Teen Dating Violence Behaviors and Associated Risk Factors Among 7th-Grade Students (6 pages, PDF) found that 37 percent of seventh-grade students had witnessed boys or girls being physically violent to those they were dating, 15 percent had been a victim of physical dating violence, and 31 percent had been a victim of electronic dating aggression in the previous six months.
Moreover, being the victim of child abuse and/or teen dating violence is highly predictive of intimate partner violence among young adults, while middle school provides a critical window of opportunity to teach youth about healthy relationships.
Funded by RWJF and the Blue Shield of California Foundation as part of an evaluation study, the report also notes that good parent-child communication is an important factor in reducing the risk of teen dating violence.
