What is Teen Dating Violence, exactly? It sounds like it would be easy to tell our young’uns, “Don’t hit each other,” and be done with the subject, right?
Unfortunately it is not as clear cut as that. Dating Violence can happen at any point in our lives, and either male or female party can be the victim. We are focusing on TEEN Dating Violence specifically, in the hopes we can eliminate the patterns young people carry over into future relationships as a result of Teen Dating Violence.
Now, let’s be clear. Unhealthy doesn’t sound too serious, right? But abusive does. What is the difference? Unhealthy becomes abusive if it isn’t corrected by either party. It’s more of a volume effect than a quality effect; the larger the numbers of unhealthy behaviors present, the more quickly the relationship turns abusive, rather than simply unhealthy!