Violence in adolescents' romantic relationships: findings from a survey amongst school-going youth in a South African community

Abstract

This paper reports on a study of heterosexual adolescent dating violence among secondary school students in a South African community. Approximately half of the surveyed males, and just over half of the surveyed females reported involvement in a physically violent dating relationship either as a perpetrator and/or victim. The study found significant associations between the beliefs about violence in a romantic relationship, the witnessing of physical violence in friendship contexts, the use of alcohol and adolescent dating violence. A significant association between familial variables and adolescent dating violence was only found for male participants. No significant association was found between religious participation and adolescent dating violence. The implications for prevention are discussed in an attempt to demonstrate the potential of local information that identifies risk factors for the development of appropriate community- and schools-based intervention programmes. Copyright 2002 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.