Teens in Abusive Relationships
Take Health Risks
Excerpt By Jesse J. Logan, Reuters Health

Teens in abusive relationships take bigger risks with their health than their peers, and the problem appears as common among males as females, a U.S. study suggests.

Previous studies have found that in adult relationships, women are more often the victims of abuse than men.

However, Dr. Timothy A. Roberts, lead author of the new study, told Reuters Health that teens of both sexes "resort to violent solutions to their emotional and relationship problems" in similar numbers.

His study of more than 4,300 students ages 11 to 21 found that 22 percent of females and 21 percent of males reported being abused by an intimate partner.

The results, based on a survey of students across the U.S., appear in the April issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

In questionnaires, researchers asked the students about their romantic and sexual relationships within the past 18 months. They were asked if they had been insulted in public, sworn at, pushed or threatened with violence, or whether their partners had ever thrown something at them.

The researchers also asked students about "high-risk behaviors," including substance use (alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana), antisocial behavior, violence and attempted suicide.

They found that both males and females who reported being abused were significantly more likely than their peers to engage in high-risk behaviors. Abused female students were even more likely than abused males to report substance use.

For both sexes, abuse was tied to a higher risk of depression.

Older students (17 to 21 years old) and those with many partners appeared more susceptible to abusive relationships. Among male students, other factors that made abuse more likely were being African American and living in a single-parent household.

"In adolescence, a lot of these (abusive) behaviors get started," said Roberts, an adolescent medicine specialist at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in Rochester, New York.

In addition to having a "corrosive effect" on one's self-image, abuse has a "very strong" negative impact on health for both young men and young women, he added.

"It would be especially important to address intimate partner violence in adolescence," Roberts said, noting that studies show that unresolved adolescent behavioral problems tend to persist into adulthood.

Seeking help from health-care workers and people in the community can be key to addressing partner violence among teens, the researchers note in their report.

While some teens may find it hard to acknowledge that the person they love is hurting them, Roberts said, "it's important for them to know that it's not healthy or normal to get hit by the person you're in love with."

SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 2003;157:375-380.

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