February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month (TDVAM) is held throughout the month of February as a way to bring together teens and those who support them in a national effort to raise awareness to teen dating violence. Organizations and schools across the country organize efforts to raise awareness every February, creating a movement of passionate, informed individuals making a difference.
Teen dating violence is defined as a pattern of abusive, controlling, or aggressive behaviors inflicted by a current or former romantic partner between the ages of twelve and eighteen. Teen dating violence can take place both in person and through technology. Some types of this abuse includes physical violence, sexual violence, psychological aggression, or stalking.
Domestic physical violence is defined as when your partner uses physical violence—or the threat of such—to maintain power or control. This can include kicking, shoving, shoving, grabbing, hitting, punching, or biting. Sexual violence involves forcing or attempting to force a partner into sexual acts or touching without their consent, including situations where the partner is not lucid enough to consent. It also includes non-physical behaviors, like sharing sexual images or sexting without consent. Psychological aggression is the use of both verbal and non-verbal communication with the intent to harm a partner mentally or emotionally to maintain control.
In the context of teen dating violence, stalking is a pattern of repeated, unwanted attention and contact by a current or former partner that causes fear or safety concerns for an individual victim or someone close to the victim.
The Statistics
While dating and domestic violence are not new phenomenons, they have become more publicly recognized as an issue. One in three teens in the US is a victim of teen dating violence. Over 70% of women and over 60% of men first experienced intimate partner violence (sexual or physical violence, and/or stalking) under the age of 25. One in four women first experienced intimate partner violence prior to the age of 18 and 49% of women have experienced rape as a minor.
Youth who experience sexual violence as children or teens are more likely to experience sexual violence in adulthood. Thirty-five percent of women who were raped as minors were also raped as adults, compared to 10% of women raped as an adult who were not raped as minors.
At-Risk Groups
Anybody can be a victim of teen dating violence, however, there are some specific risk factors that could make a teen more susceptible to TDV.
Teen dating violence risk factors loosely fall into four categories. These categories include sexual history, family background, poor self-regulation skills, and social environment. Someone with a sexual history before the age of sixteen or a history of experiencing sexual abuse is more likely to be a victim of teen dating violence. Some other examples of these risk factors are minimal to no parental supervision, exposure to familial violence, low self-esteem, depression, anger management issues, interactions with other peers who have experienced dating violence, substance abuse, and growing up in a community that accepts or normalizes violence.
Being a part of the LGBTQ community also brings more risk for TDV. Transgender boys and non-binary youth assigned female at birth specifically are more likely to be victims of multiple types of adolescent relationship abuse compared to cisgender youth. Transgender youth are reported to be the most at-risk community, and report the highest rate of physical dating violence at 88.9%, psychological dating abuse at 58.8%, cyber dating abuse at 53.8%, and sexual coercion at 61.1%.
If you or someone you know is experiencing teen dating violence, there are many extremely supportive resources available. The National Dating Violence Helpline is a 24-hour resource designed for teens and young adults. Call 1-866-331-9474 or text ‘LOVEIS’ to 22522 to get in contact with the helpline. You can also reach out to a trusted adult or HVCHS’s Student Assistant Counselor, Dr. Velderman.
If you are in immediate danger, please contact 911 immediately.
Statistics Cited:
Teen Dating Violence Prevention Resources – 2025 Update
Risk factors for teen dating violence | College of Public Health
Teen Dating Violence Fact sheet
