FOR TEACHERS:
We at KBEP strongly embrace the belief that early violence prevention programming is incredibly worthwhile and effective, and should address a spectrum of violent behaviors, including bullying and dating violence.
Repeatedly, national studies on youth violence demonstrate the dire need to address these issues. On a national level, 55% of students between the ages of eight and eleven report that bullying is a “big problem” for people their age, and 74% of students of the same age report that they get teased or bullied at school (www.talkingwithkids.org/violence).
Dating violence, like bullying and relational aggression, is also a serious problem affecting youth. Approximately one in three adolescent girls in the United States is a victim of physical, emotional or verbal abuse from a dating partner – a figure that far exceeds victimization rates for other types of violence affecting youth. (CDC, Family Violence Prevention Fund, 2009).
The health and social implications for youth experiencing dating violence are immense. The one in five female public high school students in a Massachusetts study who reported experiencing physical or sexual violence from a dating partner were four to six times more likely than their non-abused peers to have been pregnant, and eight to nine times more likely to have attempted suicide in the past year (FVPF, 2009).
