February is National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month. Tomorrow is Valentine’s day but many teens might find themselves confused about what a healthy relationship should look like.
In fact, the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey in 2019 shows that in the year prior to the survey about 1 in 12 U.S. high schoolers experienced physical dating violence.
Today we want to remind everyone to protect our youth, help them and maintain open channels of communication.
“Often instead of approaching and talking to a girl, teen boys imitate violent behavior they learn from the content they consume, and it can end up in sexual assault or harassments. Instead of courting her he can force himself. Later, when you speak to him, you learn he is confused. The message he gets from society is that he has to conquer and “be a man.” He doesn’t know anything different.
Teen girls are also confused. I heard, for example, about a group of girls who made a list of who among them is the most “rape worthy.” They share revealing pictures on social media and we adults judge them. But they really need someone to talk to about the confusion and gaps they experience. This is a warning sign for us as a society to stop and rethink this issue, to invest resources in younger generations.”- Keren Naor, Head of ELEM Youth Centers Field
For more information about preventing teen dating violence.
