Jess Geist
Social methods: SO204-A
Assignment #1
Teenage dating violence is very common in the early stages of the pre-teenage years, or between 6th to 9th grades. “Dating violence, including sexual abuse, has been found to begin as early as in the seventh grade.(Hokoda,2011:#351) Dating violence can come from teenagers who have been surrounded by the background of abuse from their parent relationships or who their peers may be. Relationship abuse may be surrounded by a foundation in cyber bullying, commonly associated with negative emotional, physical, social and academic consequences, such as depression, substance use and school failure. Dating violence, defined as “any attempt to control or dominant another person physically, sexually, psychologically, resulting in harm (Voltz at el, 2000: #587) Relationships whether it is a dating or friendship should maintain a healthy connection. In a middle school aged adolescent many changes are happening inside the body as well as the outside, the changes may make the child feel uncomfortable with him or herself. Often times turning to another peer and judging them may make the individual feel better about themselves. When an adolescent is personally trying to identify him or herself it causes a higher risk of violence with one peer to another. Teen dating violence is preventable if it is talked about in the right way. Dating violence in middle school aged children has increased over time and shows a decrease rate, as the teens get older. When communication skills and maturity levels are gaining, violence tends to diminish for the most part. A child who is educated on the consequences of violence often times do not promote the violence. I chose this topic because I feel as though it is a very important topic to be brought up about and I feel as though many people do not realize how serious dating violence can be and how often it does happen. I was never a victim of a violent situation in a relationship but I have had a bad ending to a relationship where my ex boyfriend was not ready for the relationship to end and actually became crazy and tried to self-harm himself. I learned a lot from the relationship that I feel as though it is important for others to know that dating violence can happen to anyone whether they realize it from the beginning or not. It is like I said before very preventable and I hope that readers will learn something from this research. “The ability to be in constant contact with a dating partner via these relatively new technologies may contribute to someone’s ability to stalk, control, harass, and abuse their partners” (Lenhart et al. 2011:#1064). Cyber bullying between peers is becoming more common from the age groups of twelve to seventeen year olds. The technology user senses a feeling of being behind a mask when they are messaging their partner via Facebook or text message and they say things that they are ashamed to say in person. One may feel the ability to send threats over text message or any other form of messaging because they are hidden behind the screen and loose all sense of control with their words. Both forms of messaging are very informal and un-personable. The partners let their guards down and say things that they most likely would not say face to face. “The individuals might use technology in several ways to control and abuse their dating partners.” (Zweig at el,2013:#1064). A study was done to highlight ways that youth can use technology to abuse their partners, there are several ways in which a dating partner used a form of technology to communicate. Non-aggressive communication is a way in which a partner could start to get violent. A person who is not assertive and speaks up to what he or she may believe they could be more vulnerable to violence if the other partner can sense that they are easy persuaded and often don’t speak their mind. Another way could be arguing. A partner might feel more comfortable to say his or her opinion but