Dating violence among adolescents: prevalence, gender distribution, and prevention program effectiveness

Abstract

Relative to violence among adult intimate partners, violence among adolescent dating partners remains an understudied phenomenon. In this review, we assess the state of the research literature on teen dating violence. Our review reveals that the broad range of estimates produced by major national data sources and single studies make conclusions about the prevalence of teen dating violence premature. Similarly, our review of what is known about risk factors reveals inconsistency among studies. We assess published evaluations of adolescent dating violence prevention programs and discuss their findings and limitations. Finally, we discuss challenges to researchers in this area and suggest that additional investment in high-quality basic research is needed to inform the development of sound theory and effective prevention and intervention programs.