Awareness in Love and Dating
Certain expectations that come along with celebrating Valentine’s Day include chocolates, flowers, and a heartfelt card from a loved one. It is a day adorned with red, white, and pink hearts to remind us to appreciate our partners and to let them know they are loved.
While Valentine’s Day is dedicated to gifting extra romance to the special people in our lives, February is marked as Teen Violence Dating Awareness Month.
One in three adolescents in the U.S. is a victim of physical, sexual, emotional or verbal abuse from a dating partner. The most vulnerable population for intimate partner violence is young women ages 16 to 24.
Dating abuse can be defined as a pattern of behavior that one individual use to gain, maintain, and exert power and control over another. Dating violence in a relationship can present in several forms:
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Physical:
intentional and unwanted contact on the body
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Emotional/Verbal:
non-physical behaviors such as threats, insults, humiliation, intimidation, and isolation
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Sexual:
any action that pressures or coerces one partner into engaging in a non-consensual sexual act
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Financial
: pressure into providing information about bank account and financial support
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Digital:
the use of technology such as texting and social networking to bully, harass, or intimate a partner
