Teen relationships may not seem so significant to some adults, but they can still turn violent, and that has serious implications.
On average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States, according to National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and one in three women have experienced some form of physical violence at the hands of an intimate partner.
This abuse isn’t just common among adults. Teen relationships can be violent, and that violence can lead to homicide — most often of young girls — according to a new study.
A study out this week found that of the nearly 2,190 youth homicides between 2003 and 2016, 7 percent — or 150 adolescents between 11 and 18 years old — were killed by a current or former intimate partner. Ninety percent of those victims were girls.
The study appeared in the journal JAMA Pediatrics and shows the need to take intimate partner violence seriously, no matter the age.
“People think that intimate partner violence among adolescents is less serious than among adults,” lead study author Avanti Adhia, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington School Of Medicine, told NPR. “It’s important to highlight that this can really lead to death. It’s not something to brush off as ‘This is just an argument between kids.'”
Ninety percent of the perpetrators were male, according to the study, and the most commonly weapon used in these homicides were guns.
Adhia is a senior fellow at the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center within the University of Washington, and in a statement she classified these deaths as a “public health issue.”
Most often, these homicides occur after the victim ended a relationship with the perpetrator, after a “severe” argument or if “there is jealousy over the victim dating someone new,” she added. Jealousy has previously been found to be a common issue in adolescent relationships, NPR reports.
To address this public health concern, healthcare professionals need to take action, experts say.
Emily Rothman, Caroline Kistin and Megan Bair-Merritt, all of the Boston University School of Medicine, wrote an editorial in JAMA accompanying that study to call on pediatricians to make intimate partner violence screenings a regular part of patient care.
Pediatricians often know their patients through childhood and adolescence, the editorial notes, so they’re uniquely positions to help these teens. Along with screening for intimate partner violence, these healthcare professionals should also be ready to offer emotional support, assess any urgent safety risks like access to guns, and refer these teens to certain resources.
Many sex education advocates are working on helping teens avoid or escape intimate partner violence, as well. Advocates pushing for comprehensive sex ed like Future of Sex Education, or FoSE, which works to develop national sex education standards, say that sex ed curriculums should also promote healthy relationships.
This sort of sex ed come way before your junior year health class. Students who receive comprehensive sex education, as guided by those national standards, start learning the characteristics of healthy friendships and healthy ways to express feelings in second grade.
This creates a foundation for having healthy romantic relationships, advocates say.
“Emphasizing the importance of building healthy relationships is vital to the promotion of adolescent sexual health in part because of the many negative outcomes related to intimate partner violence,” according to the FoSE website.
“The CDC estimates that nearly 1.5 million high school students are affected by dating violence annually,” FoSE continues. “Research indicates that when schools take measures to educate their students about dating violence, as well as enact school policies aimed at prevention, teens are less likely to be victimized, more likely to intend to avoid perpetrating [intimate partner violence], and sexual harassment on school property is significantly reduced.”
Kristin Toussaint 