Shaped by Adolescence

Content Warning: The following summary discusses research in difficult topics of dating/relationship violence, both physical and sexual, and self harm/attempted suicide.

Have you ever wondered how much of you was shaped by the younger version of yourself? Adolescents are young people who are in the phase of becoming an adult. Adolescence includes a wide range of ages that start from the beginning of puberty and end at the start of adulthood. 

This phase is an important and unique part of human development since anything that affects people during this time can have a big impact on how they develop as an adult. It can also have long-lasting effects on a person physically, mentally, and socially in both good and bad ways. Many adolescents start getting into romantic relationships during this time, with not all of them being healthy relationships. Adolescent Dating Violence (ADV) is when a person (or persons) in a romantic relationship hurts or controls the other person through physical, sexual, or psychological ways.

 Every year, many adolescents report being victims of physical and/or sexual violence. Victims of ADV do not only end up hurt in the moment. They can also have long-lasting health conditions. The short-term effects of ADV on victims include having mental health conditions, poor grades in school, and smoking, alcohol, and drug use. The long-term effects of being a victim can include becoming victims again later as an adult and having heart problems. Victims may also suffer from mental health conditions, muscle and joint pain, and nerve and brain problems.. 

The main motivation behind our study was to show how ADV affects adolescents and to increase ADV awareness. This can help create at-school programs that teach students about ADV and train school counselors to look for victims and respond to these situations, which can lower ADV frequency and severity. Our study looks at the relationship between ADV and negative effects including drug and alcohol use, mental health conditions, poor sleep, school performance, and feeling unsafe in adolescents within the state of Florida. 

We focused on Florida because it has a higher than national percent of ADV victims. In the United States, about 20% of  women and 14% of men have been ADV victims during their life. In Florida, the percentages of ADV victims for each gender are about doubled. Our study used self-reported data from high school students grades 9 to 12. Self-reported data is information that people report themselves based off of their own experiences. This data came from a 2015 survey known as the Youth Risk Behavior Survey that is given in schools. 

The survey asked adolescents about both physical (PDV) and sexual (SDV) dating violence, including how many times a person they dated had intentionally physically hurt them or forced them to do sexual things they didn’t want to do. We compared these answers to the risky activities that we were studying including drug and alcohol use, smoking, suicide attempts, depression, feeling unsafe at school, poor sleep, and school performance.

We were surprised to see big differences between men and women and the negative effects of being a victim. The results of our study found that adolescents who experienced ADV were more likely to attempt suicide than other risky activities. The results also showed that more men attempted suicide than women. It is important to keep in mind that both men and women ADV victims experience these negative effects more frequently than adolescents who are not victims. There were interesting differences in the type of violence and outcomes between men and women. 

Below is a figure that shows how PDV and SDV may increase chances of certain outcomes for men. PDV has been shown to increase sleep problems while both PDV and SDV make victims feel unsafe at school. 

For women, this next figure shows that there is a stronger connection between SDV and certain outcomes. SDV has shown to increase smoking, depression, and poor grades. 

           Although the national rate of ADV has continuously gone up, there have not been a lot of programs and efforts to decrease it or prevent ADV in schools and the community. Programs are different in every state, with some states not even having a program to address ADV. There are currently 30 states with ADV programs, and Florida is one of them. In 2010, a law was passed in Florida that required school counties to create training for school staff to identify ADV and to start programs to prevent ADV. However, even within the same state, not every program has the same set of learning objectives.  

The results of our study show that ADV can have several negative effects that affect adolescents physically and mentally. Our study also suggests that more in-depth programs need to be placed. This can include promoting high school programs that are part of the classroom curriculum. States could make courses on conflict education, ADV education, and training for school staff. 

Although these results may encourage action, there are some limits to our study. For example, our data came from Florida surveys and may not be applicable at the national level. Another weakness is that these surveys were only given to public schools and not private or magnet schools. As a result, the responses do not include all Florida adolescents and only include a small age group since they were only high schoolers. We cannot say for sure that ADV and these negative effects are a cause and effect relationship, but only that there is some type of connection. 

To conclude, ADV is an issue for adolescents at all grades and at the national and state level. There are many short-term and long-term health issues that can be linked to ADV. Creating programs that identify and protect these students can help prevent more issues in their adult life.

Written By: Manasicha Wongpaiboon

Academic Editor: Chemist

Non-Academic Editor: Fashion Designer

Original paper

• Title: The Relationship between Adolescent Dating Violence and Risky Health Behavioral Outcomes

• Authors: Neha Saini, Shamya N Smith, Manasicha Wongpaiboon, Vanessa B Crowther, Sarah Buxbaum, Rima Tawk

• Journal: Healthcare (Basel) 

• Date published: 23 July 2024

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