Teens involved in dating violence are also violent with siblings, peers

Washington, Dec 7 (ANI): A new study has found that people who physically assault dating partners have a history of perpetrating violence involving siblings and peers.

Emily F. Rothmanm, of the Boston University, and colleagues surveyed 1,398 high school students at 22 public high schools in Boston from January through April of 2008.

Overall, one-fifth (18.7 percent) of students reported having perpetrated physical dating violence in the past month.

Specifically, 9.9 percent reported hitting, punching, kicking or choking their partner; 17.6 percent pushed, shoved or slapped him or her; and 42.8 percent swore or cursed at their partner or called them fat, ugly, stupid or some other insult.

Of the 1,084 students with siblings, 256 boys (50.8 percent) and 351 girls (60.5 percent) reported that they had physically assaulted a sibling, peer or dating partner.

The authors found a high incidence of overlap between dating violence and peer and sibling violence among boys, with 75 percent reporting both dating and peer violence and 55.6 reporting dating and sibling violence.

Among the 351 girls who reported perpetrating one form of violence, 44.2 percent reported physical dating violence, 65.2 reported peer violence and 59.8 percent reported sibling violence.

"Adolescents who perpetrated physical dating violence were also likely to have perpetrated peer and/or sibling violence," the authors concluded.

The findings were published in the journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. (ANI)