Contextualising Violence and Abuse in Adolescent Romantic Relationships

Abstract

Traditionally, when researchers have examined violence and abuse in intimate or romantic relationships, attention has focused on adult relationships. This is of note, considering that the study of adolescent relationship violence was initiated in the early 1980s, merely a decade or so later than the study of violence in adult relationships. The interest in violent and abusive adolescent relationships has grown exponentially since then. A Google Scholar search using the terms adolescent + ‘dating violence’ returned: 71 papers dated between 1980 and 1990; 751 dated between 1991 and 2000; 4,440 dated between 2001 and 2010; and 3,410 dated between 2011 and March 2014. This intervening time period has seen changes in how young people’s relationships are understood and appraised, and also in how policy has acknowledged and responded to such behaviours in adolescent romantic relationships. Alongside advances in our understanding of the nature, antecedents and consequences of violence and abuse in adolescent romantic relationships, has been an increase in the development of primary and secondary interventions and their evaluation. Given the increase in research activity in this field, and more recent policy focus on this issue it seems prudent to consolidate what we know about violence and abuse in adolescent relationships and how to prevent it; this is the ultimate aim of this book.