The Risks Of Teen Dating

Statistics show that young women, between ages 16 and 24, experience the highest percentage of dating violence - in as much as 20 in ever 1000 women! As a parent, you wouldn't want your daughter to be part of this unfortunately growing number.

Under United States Department of Justice, violence in dating is defined as the threat of an act of aggression and hostility by one member of any unmarried couple or any one engaged in courtship or dating setting. This also holds true for same sex couples. However, majority of the statistics show that violence occurs in heterosexual couples.

In fact, in teen dating, one in every three young women has experience being harassed in a relationship. Acts of aggression and violence are as much dominant in teen dating as much as it is evident in married couples. Violence happens due to the insistence of one partner to uphold control and power over the partner in a form of verbal, physical, or emotional abuse. Violence in dating excuses no one. It crosses all social and racial lines and chooses no age. However, reality may bite; young women (mostly in their teens) are of higher risks to violence and subsequent serious injury.

Due to all of this madness, young women may shy away from teen dating. This should not always be the case. You can still continue dating; you just need to have a safety plan. Violence in teen dating is unluckily the type of abuse that is often secreted by your daughters. This is mainly because of wanting to gain independence from you, pressured by peers to engage in relationships, or largely due to the fact that they are afraid to tell their parents about the abuse.

Unfortunately, most abused girls in teen dating do not readily tell their parents. This way, you have to extend a hand to help them. You must be vigilant of signs like traces of physical abuse, failing grades, dropping out from school, emotional outburst, isolation from the family, and worst - usage of drugs and alcohol. These are commonly identifiers that something is wrong, and if your daughter is not willing to tell anything, you have to find it out yourself.

Teen dating is something inevitable. You were part of it in the past and you loved your first romances. However, times have changed and people today are influenced by things that can sometimes cause them to lose their inhibitions. With this in mind, you have to be more careful and attentive of your daughters, otherwise they'll end up just like the millions of abused women.