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One in Five Teen Girls Abused by Partners In U.S.: Study
One in five teenage girls say they have been physically or sexually abused by a partner, according to a study released Tuesday.
These victims of dating violence were much more likely to be heavy smokers, have dabbled in drugs, engaged in binge drinking, or used laxatives or vomiting to suppress their weight, the study said.
It's not clear what the link between the two is, but the high rate of abuse amongst these teenagers underlines the need to protect young women against this type of violence and the risks that accompany it, the authors said in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"We need to increase our efforts to educate young girls about these dangers and how they can get help, and to discourage attitudes among both youth and adults that lead to acceptance of violence in relationships," said Jay Silverman, director of violence prevention programs at the Harvard School of Public Health.
The research - the first large-scale study to look at abuse of adolescent girls - was based on questionnaires filled out by Massachusetts high-school in 1997 by 1,977 girls aged 14-18 and 2,186 girls in 1999.
It showed that girls who had sex before the age of 15 or who had multiple partners were at greater risk for abuse.
And those girls who had been abused were up to three times more likely to have tried to manipulate their weight with laxatives or vomiting than their non-abused contemporaries; four times more likely to have indulged in substance abuse; up to six times more likely to have been pregnant, and up to nine times more likely to have attempted suicide.
Physical or sexual abuse of women by their partners is a major public health concern: more than 1.5 million women are abused by their partners every year in the United States, according to previous studies.
A quarter of all women will experience some form of abuse from their partner during their lifetime, and ten percent of deliberate injuries suffered by adolescent girls are inflicted by their male dating partners.
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