Violence among teenage dating couples is one of the hidden social issues of the 1980's. A survey was conducted of 256 high school students in a Sacramento, Calif., school district during the 1982-1983 school year. The majority of the students were white, juniors or seniors, middle-class, average or better students, and from intact two-parent homes. Thirty-five percent of the students were either victims of abuse, perpetrators, or both. The severity of abuse indicated that the most frequently exhibited forms of violence were slapping, pushing, and shoving. Although a larger number of abusive experiences were at the lower or less severe end of the continuum of violence, many students, nonetheless, experienced severe levels of violence. The study also found that violence between the boys and girls was apparently reciprocal; those who slapped or pushed would be slapped or pushed in return. Other findings reveal that (1) the violence in and of itself was usually not sufficient grounds for ending a relationship, (2) those students who reported spousal violence between their parents had a greater rate of violence in their dating relationship, and (3) 50 percent of the students who had never experienced violence had 'known of' another student who had experienced it. Finally, violence occurred without statistical significance to any of the social demographics studied. 3 tables and 14 references.