10% of Female Adolescents Suffer Date Violence/Rape

Violence and rape during a date is emotionally and physically damaging to any individual. An adult who experiences this type of abuse will likely remember the harrowing experience and will be affected for the rest of their lives.

This type of experience is even more damaging to teens since their future will be influenced by a single activity.

But aside from the long term effects of date rape and violence, there are also immediate reactions to these situations that lead to further downturn of behavior. This prevents development which will affect the future of teens.

The immediate impact of the date rape and violence among teens were presented on the 109th Annual Convention of American Psychological Association. The study was presented by Diann M. Ackard, a psychologist based on Minnesota.

Along with Ackard, the study was completed with the help of Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, a nutritionist working for the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. The researchers focused on the survey made by the Minnesota Student Survey which was conducted in 1998.

The survey asked the correspondents regarding their dating experience especially on violence. Along with this question, teens were also asked about their self esteem and other behaviors.

The results of the study provided a relationship between binge-eating and date violence. Most of the teens that experienced violence and date rape resort to binge-eating to remove the feeling of guilt.

They focus their energy on eating so that they can forget their experience.

Along with binge-eating, many of the teens who experience violence and date rape have low self-esteem. Even though the experience is only momentarily, the early indications of the term effects of violence and date rape immediately show.

The low self-esteem is especially devastating since this will prevent the teen from getting the things he or she wants or even needs.

The number of violence and date rape is even staggering. According to the studies, 10% of the female teens have experienced violence or date rape. On the other hand, nearly 6% of male teens have experienced violence in some point.

At first glance, the number is relatively small but a person that was victimized during a date does not see the small number, he or she sees the possible implications of the physical violence.

His or her acts in the future will not only affect one person but their family and community as well.

Because of the long term effects of date violence and rape, it’s important for parents, teachers and the community to intervene at the situation as early as possible. There are signs that a teen may have experienced this type of violence.

The sudden binge-eating and withdrawal from community activities can be taken as a clue that something bad has happened to a teen.

Through early intervention, the long term effects that destroy the life of a teen when they reach adulthood could be prevented.

Violence and date rape is a harrowing experience but its bad effects can be buffered with the help from various sources.