Jg. Silverman et al., Dating violence against adolescent girls and associated substance use, unhealthy weight control, sexual risk behavior, pregnancy, and suicidality, J AM MED A, 286(5), 2001, pp. 572-579
Citations number
35
Categorie Soggetti
General & Internal Medicine","Medical Research General Topics
Context Intimate partner violence against women is a major public health co
ncern. Research among adults has shown that younger age is a consistent ris
k factor for experiencing and perpetrating intimate partner violence. Howev
er, no representative epidemiologic studies of lifetime prevalence of datin
g violence among adolescents have been conducted.
Objective To assess lifetime prevalence of physical and sexual violence fro
m dating partners among adolescent girls and associations of these forms of
violence with specific health risks.
Design, Setting, and Participants Female 9th- through 12th-grade students w
ho participated in the 1997 and 1999 Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Surv
eys (n =1977 and 2186, respectively).
Main Outcome Measures Lifetime prevalence rates of physical and sexual dati
ng violence and whether such violence is independently associated with subs
tance use, unhealthy weight control, sexual risk behavior, pregnancy, and s
uicidality.
Results Approximately 1 in 5 female students (20.2% in 1997 and 18.0% in 19
99) reported being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner. A
fter controlling for the effects of potentially confounding demographics an
d risk behaviors, data from both surveys indicate that physical and sexual
dating violence against adolescent girls is associated with increased risk
of substance use (eg, cocaine use for 1997, odds ratio [OR], 4.7; 95% confi
dence interval [CI], 2.3-9.6; for 1999, OR, 3.4; 95% Cl, 1.7-6.7), unhealth
y weight control behaviors (eg, use of laxatives and/or vomiting [for 1997,
OR, 3.2; 95% Cl, 1.8-5.5; for 1999, OR, 3.7;95% CI, 2.2-6.5]), sexual risk
behaviors (eg, first intercourse before age 15 years [for 1997, OR, 8.2; 9
5%. CI, 5.1-13.4; for 1999, OR, 2.4; 95% Cl, 1.4-4.2]), pregnancy (for 1997
, OR, 6.3; 95% Cl, 3.4-11.7; for 1999, OR, 3.9; 95% CI, 1.9-7.8), and suici
dality (eg, attempted suicide [for 1997, OR, 7.6; 95% Cl, 4.7-12.3; for 199
9, OR, 8.6; 95% CI, 5.2-14.4]).
Conclusion Dating violence is extremely prevalent among this population, an
d adolescent girls who report a history of experiencing dating violence are
more likely to exhibit other serious health risk behaviors.