Boarding Schools for Girls

The Ohio House of Representatives has passed a law that will require public schools to educate students in grades kindergarten through 12 about dating violence. The law also requires certain school staff members to take training about dating violence by October 2011, and then every five years after that.

The law goes into effect March 29, 2010.

A Feb. 8 article on BucyrusOnline.com that reported on the new law also provided the following information from the U.S. Department of Justice about dating violence and other forms of relationship abuse:

• About one in three high school students have been or will be involved in an abusive relationship.
• Forty percent of teenage girls ages 14 to 17 say they know someone their age who has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend.
• One study found that 38 percent of date rape victims were young women from 14 to 17 years of age.
• In 1995, 7 percent of all murder victims were young women who were killed by their boyfriends.

Labels: relationships, violence, abuse

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A new survey of more than 33,000 girls ages 12 to 17 years old has revealed that that one in four has experienced a serious fight or attack from another girl in the past year.

Researchers from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found the following:

• 19 percent of the girls had been in a fight at school
• 14 percent had been in a group fight
• 6 percent had attacked someone else with the intention of hurting that person.

Using drugs or alcohol put a girl at higher risk for such fights, SAMHSA reported.

"The findings are all alarming," said SAMHSA spokesperson Pamela Hyde. "We need to do a better job of reaching girls at risk and teaching them how to resolve problems without resorting to violence."

Labels: fighting, violence

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In an article that appeared in the Sept. 30 edition of the Chicago Tribune, Joanna Broder explored the risk of violence and depression among girls and women in Illinois:

A report released earlier this month found that many girls in Chicago and Illinois "face serious violence in their lives," including physical and sexual abuse, threats and injury in school, and assault on the streets.

The report, "Status of Girls in Illinois," notes that 10.7 percent of girls in Chicago's high schools skipped school in 2007 because of safety concerns -- nearly double the national average of 5.6 percent -- and that "many girls also report a pervasive feeling of threat and lack of security."

The report pulls together existing survey data about girls in Chicago and Illinois and makes recommendations about a variety of development, health and wellness issues such as access to health care, mental and emotional health, sexuality, safety and substance abuse.

It also found that depression and other forms of mental illness pose a serious health issue for area girls.

Labels: violence, depression, research

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A survey conducted by Britain's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and the University of Bristol has revealed a disturbing prevalence of relationship violence and sexual abuse among British teens.
A Sept. 1 Daily Mail article provided the following details about the study

• The researchers discovered that one in three teen girls had experienced sexual abuse at the hands of their boyfriends.
• Many of the surveyed teens said they had been pressured or forced to kiss or sexually touch their boyfriend, while one in 16 of the 13- to 17-year-olds said they had been raped.
• A quarter of girls interviewed by the charity said they had experienced violence in a relationship.
  
• Having an older boyfriend put girls at a higher risk, with three-quarters of them saying they had been victims of physical or sexual abuse.
• Girls from a family where an adult had been violent towards them were also at greater risk.

The survey results were based upon information gathered from 1,300 teen girls from throughout the nation.

Labels: relationships, violence, abuse, girls

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On May 3, KTRK-13 (an ABC affiliate in Houston, Texas) aired a news segment by about teen dating violence that demonstrated a startling disconnect between the prevalence of teen dating violence and parents' awareness of the degree to which the problem has permeated today's youth culture. In the segment, KTRK's Sharron Melton cited the following statistics:

According to the US Bureau of Justice, about one in three high school girls have been, or will be pushed, slapped or hit by a boyfriend. And 40 percent of girls between the ages of 14 and 17 know someone their age who has been abused. ...

According to a survey by the National Teen Dating Violence Prevention Initiative, 81 percent of parents say they do not believe dating violence is an issue, and 54 percent admit they have not even spoken to their child about dating violence.

Though dating violence is a significant problem among young people, many adolescents and teenagers are not able to identify signs that they are in an abusive relationship -- and many who are being abused do not know how to escape the violence.

Experts advise all parents of teenagers to educate themselves and their children about the signs and dangers of teen dating violence, and to take action if they suspect that their teen is involved in an abusive relationship.

Labels: relationships, teenagers, violence, dating

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Teens who value power are more likely to engage in school violence, including hitting and threatening others. Teens who value conformity or universalism are less likely to engage in such behaviors, according to a study published in Child Development.

For purposes of the study, "power" meant "trying to attain social status by controlling and dominating others," conformity meant "limiting actions and urges that might violate social expectations and norms," and universalism was "promoting, understanding, appreciation, tolerance and protecting the welfare of all people and nature."

Researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem studied the attitudes and behaviors of 907 students in grades 10 through 12 in order to test their hypothesis that a teen's values predict behaviors. Their research indicated that values come not only from the home and parents, but also from peer groups and the culture of the teen's school.

Labels: aggression, violence, values

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About three percent of teenaged girls experience physical or sexual assault from boyfriends or on dates, according to a new study from the Medical University of South Carolina. The abuse rate is probably higher, experts believe, because the researchers did not look into verbal abuse and less serious assaults such as slapping and shoving.

Dr. Kate Wolitzky-Taylor and her colleagues interviewed a national sample of both boys and girls ages 12 to 17 years old, and found that 2.7 of girls and 0.6 of boys had been victims of dating violence, including being threatened with a weapon and physical or sexual assault. The victims had four times the risk of post-traumatic stress syndrome or depression.

Teens with histories of trauma - such as loss of a parent or witnessing violence at home - were at greater risk for being victims of dating violence. Older teen girls were more likely to experience dating violence than younger teens.

This study appeared in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Labels: violence, dating, rape

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The stories and videos are all over the news and YouTube: teenage girls beating each other up over issues including boyfriends and “dirty looks.” The increase in violent behavior among teen girls is concerning to many, but not surprising to some.

“Girls, like boys, are citizens of our violent world… The resulting message to young girls is that they are vulnerable and that they must learn to be violent to survive. That misguided belief is often reinforced in the smaller world of highly dysfunctional home lives where kindness is confused with weakness.” [Source: Gloucester (MA) Times]

Teens are also strongly influenced by their peers. Dr. Thomas Berndt of Purdue University refers to a “contagion effect,” similar to a mob effect, that causes teenagers to do things in groups that they would never do alone.

 

Labels: teenagers, violence

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 1 Comment