The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted a new survey on US high school students asking whether they have faced some type of violence from someone whom they have dated.

The survey was an updated one and included more questions, including sexual violence and brief information about violent behaviours. The survey results involving about 9,900 high school students unveiled that both the genders have faced sexual violence.

An estimated 7% of teen girls had faced physical violence and 6% experienced both. Around 21% of the participants unveiled that they have experienced some type of dating-related violence.

Around 4% of boys have faced physical violence and 3% experienced sexual violence and 10% faced some form of violence. The survey unveiled that those who had faced violence had experienced it more than once and they were also at increased risk to face other health issues including drinking, drug use and in more severe cases, suicide.

The researchers affirmed that the targets who could also be the culprits could be at higher risks of issues like self-destructive behaviour, bullying, unsafe wander sexual conduct and substance use.
Monica Swahn, an associate director of research with the Emory Center for Injury Control at Georgia State University, was of the view that the findings are quite troubling. “These are serious forms of victimization with lasting scars, both physically and emotionally”, affirmed Swahn.

In the survey, one new query was included that asked whether the youngster was compelled to ‘do sexual things that you didn’t need to do’.

Kevin Vagi, a behavioral scientist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, affirmed that though female students had faced more incidents of violence, it can also not be ignored that males and female students are both affected by teen dating violence.