Submitted by SAFE San Juans

February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. We all know that domestic and dating violence affects people of all age, but did you know our youth are at a greater risk? Young people 12-19 years old experience the highest rates of sexual assault, and youth, 18 to 19-years-old experience the highest rates of stalking.

Most youths start to explore dating and romantic involvement between the ages of 11-14, but unfortunately, many, if not all, do not get healthy relationship education until much later. Dating in our youth is what sets the stage for our future relationships. It’s scary to think that one in every five tweens knows a victim of dating violence, and approximately one in every three adolescent girls is a victim of physical, emotional, or verbal abuse.

The education of teens needs to happen much earlier. Teen dating violence is a serious public health risk in our society today. Many youths who experience teen dating violence are at risk for long-term effects such as drug and alcohol use, eating disorders, self-harm behaviors, and a pattern of abuse in future relationships. Teens say they are learning about relationships by watching TV, social media, their peers, and older siblings. Teens need to be learning about relationships earlier in adolescence from trusted adults in their lives, such as parents, teachers, educators, and caregivers.

In an online survey of parents with children 11-18, nearly half had not discussed healthy relationships with their child. Additionally, a majority of parents stated that they could not identify all the warning signs of an abusive relationship. To make that statistic more compelling, less than one in three teens confide in their parents about the violence they may be experiencing in their relationship. When asked, parents said they do not discuss dating violence with their children because they think they are too young to talk about it, they would not know what to say, or they think their child would learn from experience. This is very concerning. If our youth are not getting the education they need at home then where will they get it?

Fortunately, we have resources available to us in our community. San Juan Island school district is lucky to have Joyce Wells, a trained preventionist dedicated to working with our youth. The San Juan Island Prevention Coalition is another great resource, and here at SAFE San Juans, we are dedicated to providing our community with healthy relationship prevention and education for our youth, parents, and community members. Every member of our community young and old deserves to live free of abuse.

At SAFE San Juans our mission is the prevention and elimination of domestic violence and sexual assault through victim’s services, education, community awareness, and cultural and social change.

Resources:

http://www.loveisrespect.org/resources/dating-violence-statistics/

https://www.futureswithoutviolence.org/

https://thatsnotcool.com/