One in five girls and one in eight boys who visit the Emergency Room have experienced dating violence over the past year, a new research reveals.
Researchers say that dating violence leads to depression, drug and alcohol abuse. The team surveyed 4,089 boys and girls between the ages of 14 and 20 who were admitted to a suburban emergency department. They noted that 72.9 percent of them were Caucasian. 86.9 percent of them were enrolled in school at the time of the study. The researchers screened the patients for dating violence.
The findings showed that in the past year, one in six of those surveyed experienced dating violence. Among men, 12.5 percent reported dating violence, 11.7 percent dealt with dating victimization and 4.9 percent experienced dating aggression. For females, the rates for dating violence, dating victimization and dating aggression were 18.4 percent, 10.6 percent and 14.6 percent respectively. Dating victimization was defined as receiving violent acts and dating aggression was defined as perpetrating violent acts.
"An enormous number of youth and adolescents have already experienced violence in their dating lives," study lead author Vijay Singh, MD, MPH, MS of the University of Michigan Injury Center and Department of Emergency Medicine, said in a press release. "Patterns that begin in adolescence can carry over to adulthood. Screening and intervention among youth with a history of dating violence can be critical to reducing future adult intimate partner violence."
Researchers also stated certain risk factors for dating violence - African-American, alcohol and illicit drug misuse, and depression. Female participants who reported dating violence were more likely to be on public assistance, have poor academic performance and sought medical care for an intentional injury.
"With this many youth and adolescents experiencing either dating victimization or dating aggression, it's dangerously easy for the behavior to become 'normalized,'" said Dr. Singh. "Simply treating the injury and not assessing for dating violence loses an opportunity for injury prevention and breaking the cycle of violence. Because African-American youth experienced greater odds of dating violence than their Caucasian peers, culturally tailored interventions will be essential."
The study, 'Dating Violence Among Male and Female Youth Seeking Emergency Department Care,' was published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
