Skip to content

Developmental Considerations of Abuse

Children/Adolescents

How IPV affects children/adolescents

Children and Adolescents who experience violence/abuse directly or indirectly may experience

  • Guilt
  • Depression, anxiety, mental health issues, drug and alcohol abuse
  • Behavioral problems at school
  • Health issues later on in life

Childhood and adolescent experiences can influence future relationships

  • Witnessing or experiencing abuse can not only affect an individual’s perspective on what constitutes partner violence, but whether or not a person is abusive towards their partner in future romantic relationships.
  • In addition to affecting people psychologically, physically, and socially, abuse also affects the length and dynamics of the relationship.
    • Contrary to what people who do not experience abuse think, abuse often prolongs a relationship that might otherwise be short lived because the victim may not know how to reach out for help or leave the relationship due to fear of the batterer’s response or actions.

Teen Dating Violence

Teen dating violence includes behaviors such as:

  • physical violence
  • stalking
  • proprietary control (checking partner’s phone, telling he/she what to wear, not allowing he/she to socialize with others, etc.)

Victims of teen dating violence may experience

  • depression
  • anxiety
  • make unhealthy lifestyle choices such as drug use and alcohol abuse
  • engage in unsafe sexual behaviors
  • antisocial behaviors

Age of First Occurrence of Abuse

There is also a trend in the age at first occurrence of teen violence. Psychological violence such as controlling behaviors, name calling, and put downs were typically reported to have occurred before physical and sexual violence, and were first experienced between the ages of 13 and 15 for both males and females.

  • Males reported experiencing name calling and put downs earlier than females, while females reported controlling behaviors earlier than males.
  • Females reported experiencing sexual pressure between the ages of 16 and 17. (4)

Number of Abusive Partners

Although early in their dating experiences, both males and females reported having more than two abusive partners during teenage relationships (4).

Physical and Psychological Violence

Both teen males and females can be perpetrators and/or victims of IPV.

  • Studies show similar rates of experiencing physical and psychological abuse by both genders. (38)
  • Approximately 64% of females and 61% of males reported experiencing dating violence from age 13 to 19.
    • Psychological violence that was experienced by participants included:
      • controlling behavior (24.7% of females, 18.7% of males)
      • unwanted calls/texts/visits (27.4% of females, 27.1% of males)
      • name calling/put downs (30.5% of females, 15% of males)
      • insults/yelling/swearing (42.6% of females, 43.9% of males) (38)
    • Physical violence victimization was experienced more often by males than females:
      • 32.6 % of males and 28.8% of females (38)
      • 13.1 % of males, 3.7% of females reported a higher victimization (4)
      • Females actually reported themselves to be perpetrators of violence more often than males. (37)

Sexual victimization

  • Tends to be experienced/reported more frequently by adolescent females
    • 8.2% -15% in females, 4.9%-7% in males (13)
    • 25% of females experiencing persistent begging or threats compared to 11% of males (4)

Re-victimization Later in Life

Experiencing teen violence has been shown to increase the chances of experiencing violence in late adolescence and early adulthood (19, 31).

css.php