Teen Dating Violence - A Review of Risk Factors and Prevention Efforts

Sep 17, 2026

Uploaded by Levi

Teen dating violence is discussed as a significant social and public health problem affecting high school students, with impacts spanning physical and mental health. The review synthesizes research on consistent risk factors for perpetrators and victims, including norms that accept violence, exposure to violence, substance use, peer influences, and histories of aggression. It also outlines prevalence-rate findings and explains variability caused by differing definitions and reporting biases.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

Teen dating violence as a social and public health problem

Key risk factors from the literature

Focus of the article: review and prevention effectiveness

Prevalence rates

Reasons for variability in prevalence estimates

High-risk youth and heightened prevalence

Teen Dating Violence: A Review of Risk Factors and Prevention Efforts Maura O’Keefe “Key risk factors consistently found in the literature to be associated with inflicting dating violence include the following: holding norms accepting or justifying the use of violence in dating relationships (Malik et al., 1997; O’Keefe, 1997); having friends in violent relationships (Arriaga & Foshee, 2004); exposure to violence in one’s family and community violence (Foo & Margolin, 1995, O’Keefe, 1997; Schwartz et al., 1997); alcohol and drug use (O’Keeffe et al., 1986; Silverman et al., 2001); and a having a history of aggression (Riggs & O’Leary, 1989, Chase et al., 1998). The one factor that has consistently been associated with being the victim of dating violence, particularly for males, is inflicting dating violence (O’Keefe, 1997).” Applied Research papers synthesize and interpret current research on violence against women, offering a review of the literature and implications for policy and practice. The Applied Research initiative represents a collaboration between the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, and the Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse. VAWnet is a project of the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence. In the past several decades dating violence has emerged as a significant social and public health problem. Much of the dating violence research, however, has focused on adult couples or college samples and only recently has attention been paid to dating violence among high school students (e.g. , Foshee, 1996; James, West, Deters, & Armijo, 2000; Kreiter et al. , 1999). Teen dating violence is a significant problem not only because of its alarming prevalence and physical and mental health consequences (Callahan, Tolman, & Saunders, 2003; Coker, Smith, McKeown, & King, 2000), but also because it occurs at a life stage when romantic relationships are beginning and interactional patterns are learned that may carry over into adulthood (Werkerle & Wolfe, 1999) . Teen dating violence ranges from emotional and verbal abuse to rape and murder and appears to parallel the continuum of adult domestic violence (Sousa, 1999) . Adolescents often have difficulty recognizing physical and sexual abuse as such and may perceive controlling and jealous behaviors as signs of love (Levy, 1990) . Perhaps due to their need for autonomy and greater reliance on peers, teens involved in dating violence seldom report the violence to a parent or adult; if it is reported, most tell a friend and the incident never reaches an adult who could help (Cohall, 1999) . The focus of the present article is two fold: 1) to provide a critical review of the dating violence literature with respect to potential risk factors for both perpetrators and victims; and 2) to examine the empirical research regarding the effectiveness of prevention and intervention programs targeting teen dating violence. Before reviewing the existing literature, two areas are discussed briefly: prevalence rates and the issue of mutual aggression. Prevalence Rates A considerable body of research has been conducted to assess prevalence rates of dating violence. A recent national survey April 2005 Page 1 of 14 found that approximately 12% of high school students reported experiencing physical violence ina dating relationship (Center for Disease Control, 2000). However, rates of dating violence in highschool samples have been found to be as low as 9%(Roscoe & Callahan, 1985) and as high as 57%(Cascardi, Avery-Leaf, O’Leary, 1994) . The wide range in prevalence rates may be due to several factors. Similar to the research on spousal violence, there appears to be no standard definition of dating violence. Whereas some researchers include psychological and emotional abuse in their definition of dating violence (e.g., intimidation, verbal abuse, and monitoring a partner’s whereabouts) (O’Keeffe, Brockop

FAQs

Which risk factors are consistently linked to inflicting teen dating violence?

Risk factors include dating norms accepting or justifying violence, having friends in violent relationships, exposure to family or community violence, alcohol and drug use, and a history of aggression.

Is there a factor associated with being a victim of teen dating violence?

The review notes that inflicting dating violence has been consistently associated with being the victim of dating violence, particularly for males.

Why do prevalence rates of teen dating violence vary across studies?

Differences stem from lack of a standard definition, whether psychological/emotional and sexual violence are included, whether studies focus on single/recent versus multiple relationships, and how perpetration and victimization data are combined. Self-report and reporting biases also affect estimates.

Sep 17, 2026

Uploaded by Levi