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If It Hurts You, Then It is Not a Joke: Adolescents' Ideas About Girls' and Boys' Use and Experience of Abusive Behavior in Dating Relationships

NCJ Number
234384
Journal
Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 21 Issue: 9 Dated: September 2006 Pages: 1191-1207
Author(s)
Heather A. Sears; E. Sandra Byers; John J. Whelan; Marcelle Saint-Pierre
Date Published
September 2006
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study examined adolescent's views on dating abuse.
Abstract
This study examined adolescents' ideas about girls' and boys' use and experience of physical and psychological abuse in heterosexual dating relationships. Canadian high school students who were enrolled in Grades 9 and 11 took part in single-gender focus groups. Eight themes emerged from the analysis. The themes highlight the importance teenagers place on context for defining specific behaviors as abusive. They also underscore gender differences in the criteria adolescents use to make these judgments, in the forms of abusive behavior teenagers typically use in a dating relationship, and in the reasons for youths' declining use of physical abuse and increasing use of psychological abuse. These views have important implications for future research and for programs targeting adolescent dating violence. (Published Abstract)

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