In a nationally representative poll of US teenagers, serious dating violence, including physical abuse, sexual assault or being threatened with a weapon, was reported by 2.7 percent of girls and 0.6 percent of boys. The results were derived from a telephone-based survey completed by 3,614 adolescents ages 12 to 17.

Kate B. Wolitzky-Taylor and colleagues at the Medical University of South Carolina-Charleston reported that the teenagers who said they had been victimized by dating violence were almost four times as likely to experience symptoms of major depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. "Overall, these findings suggest that dating violence in adolescence is a significant public health issue to address, particularly for older adolescent girls," they wrote.

Factors associated with greater risk included female sex, older age, experiencing other potentially traumatic events, and recent life stressors.

The authors also noted that the proportion of teenagers in abusive relationships may be higher than they found, because their questions dealt only with more serious forms of violent behavior. They did not include verbal abuse, or being slapped or shoved without injury.

The researchers called for stepped-up efforts to prevent and identify dating violence and conflict-management instruction for teens. In addition, teens should be taught to tell an adult when they have a friend who is a victim of dating violence.

The report, "Prevalence and Correlates of Dating Violence in a National Sample of Adolescents," was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (2008;47(7):755-762).

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