Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, researchers at Cornell University and Boston University report the negative effect that teen dating violence victimization has on both male and female victims’ health as young adults. When compared to their non-victimized peers, female respondents who experienced teenage dating violence victimization subsequently reported higher rates of heavy episodic drinking, depressive symptomatology, suicidal ideation, smoking, and intimate partner victimization. Male respondents who experienced teenage dating violence victimization subsequently reported higher rates of antisocial behaviors, suicidal ideation, marijuana use, and intimate partner victimization.
Read the U.S. News and World Report Health story here: Dating Violence in Teen Years Can Have Lasting Impact (by Carina Storrs, released on December 10, 2012).
Excerpt: “Teenagers who experience dating violence could be more likely to get involved in violent relationships and have health problems as young adults, a new study suggests.
Researchers analyzed surveys of nearly 6,000 teens across the United States that were taken when the teens were between the ages of 12 and 18, and again five years later. The surveys asked about physical and psychological violence in romantic relationships, and also about feeling depressed, having suicidal thoughts, drinking and doing drugs.
‘What stood out was, across both genders and types of victimization, teens who experienced teen dating violence were two to three times more likely to be re-victimized by a partner in young adulthood,’ said study author Deinera Exner-Cortens, a graduate student in the department of human development at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
Exner-Cortens and her colleagues also found that teens who were victims of dating violence faced higher rates or depression, suicidal thoughts and heavy drinking, which varied by gender.”
Deinera Exner-Cortens is a graduate student in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University. Dr. John Eckenrode is a Professor of Human Development in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University, Director of the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, and Director of the National Data Archive of Child Abuse and Neglect. Dr. Emily Rothman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at Boston University’s School of Public Health.
Scholarly source: Deinera Exner-Cortens, M.P.H., John Eckenrode, Ph.D., and Emily Rothman, Sc.D. (2013). Longitudinal associations between teen dating violence victimization and adverse health outcomes. Pediatrics 131(1):71-78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1542/peds.2012-1029