"When high school senior Emily Graham found out how common teen dating violence is among her peers, she got angry.
'How can we let this keep going on without doing something to stop it?' said Graham, a senior at Riverside Brookfield High School.
Graham, along with hundreds of Chicago-area high school soccer players, filmed public service announcements that will be shared on social media channels throughout February, which is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. The PSAs, which will be shown on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, highlight the problem and offer resources to break the cycle of abuse.
'It lets people know we’re not going to judge you and we’ll be here for you. We want you to be happy and safe, and no one deserves to be in an abusive relationship,' Graham said.
A study published in 2015 in JAMA Pediatrics analyzed responses from a 2013 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey of high school students who dated and found 1 in 5 female students and 1 in 10 male students experienced some form of teen dating violence during the past 12 months.
Dating violence can be physical, psychological or sexual and occur in person or electronically. It can lead to serious, long-lasting effects, including making youth more likely to develop depression and anxiety, engage in unhealthy behaviors or exhibit antisocial behaviors and think about suicide, according to the CDC."
February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month. Learn more about teen dating violence in our newly updated Preventing and Responding to Teen Dating Violence special collection, and join NRCDV's TDVAM 2018 activities.
