Study shows abuse common amoung dating teens.

In a recent study conducted by the Liz Claiborne company more than half of America's teens said that they knew friends who have experienced physical, sexual or verbal abuse during their dating relationships.

Among those surveyed, thirteen percent of teenage girls admit to being physically injured or hit and one in four report being pressured to perform oral sex or engage in intercourse, according to the survey conducted by the private research group Teenage Research Unlimited.

According to Jane Randel a vice president at Liz Claiborne Inc. , while research has shown that domestic violence among teens parallel those among adults, little is being done to educate America's youth.

Hmmm...

I have seven nieces ranging from fourteen to twenty-two. They all know that if worse comes to worse, all they have to do is make a phone call to ole' Uncle Scott and when I show up, Hell follows with me. Hehe, I guess that's why I'm always the last resort phone call.

It really saddens me to realize the increasing number of domestic violence cases among young people. Well, I'm sure it's always been there, just covered up more. These types of things start early on in people's lives. Young women often get into a pattern of going from one abusive relationship to another. A vicious cycle then starts with young boys seeing how their fathers behaved towards their mothers then grow up into violent abusive men.

I have personally talked to women who have been the victim of domestic violence and I hear pretty much the same thing from all of them. They get beaten and trampled over to the point that they are affraid to call for help. Then their feelings of self worth drop to near nothing. The most common thing that I have heard is, "I worry about the affect this will have on my children."

In some cases children grow up and turn in the opposite direction. As much as I loved him and it kills me to admit it, my father was abusive to my mother for years. The man never layed a hand on her in anger, but the mental abuse made up for that. My mother for probably the better part of her forty year marriage to Dad walked around on egg shells for fear of setting him off. He would get mad, throw tantrums and often break stuff around the house. I remember him telling me more than once as I was growing up, "I better not ever hear of you beating your wife when you get married." I don't think he ever really realized just how abusive he was to Mom. She was always afraid of making him mad. Myself on the other hand, well I went a different route. As often as it was planted in my head that it was wrong to hit a lady, it was also from seeing how my father was that I made it a point to realize that the mental abuse was almost as bad. In my past relationships I've had to be pushed very hard before I'd even raise my voice. Which doesn't make me a good candidate to be coupled with someone who likes to argue because I just get up and leave, haha.

I don't know really what the answer is in this situation. Unfortunately domestic abuse will continue no matter what preventative measures are taken. I just hope that if I ever have children that I will be able to set a good enough example for them to be able to grow into good decent people.

-S