In a first-of-its-kind study, a Boston University School of Public Health researcher finds that stalking and harassment are startlingly common in American teen relationships. The findings, which are published in the journal Youth & Society and are part of the first national study of nonphysical youth dating abuse, indicate that 48 percent of 12- to 18-year-olds who have been in a relationship have been stalked or harassed by a partner, and 42 percent have stalked or harassed a partner.
"These victimization and perpetration numbers are unacceptably high," says study lead researcher Emily Rothman, a School of Public Health professor of community health sciences. "Unfortunately, they are in line with estimates of similar problems like dating and sexual violence victimization, so they are both shocking and unsurprising at the same time."
Previous research shows that harassing and stalking behaviors, including destroying belongings or going through social media accounts, can lead to physical violence, Rothman says.
But perhaps especially in the time of coronavirus-when physical distancing is the new norm-nonphysical dating abuse needs to be recognized as real and harmful in its own right, she says.
"Adolescents have already been fully aware of how harmful online forms of abuse can be-that it's valid to be interested in that and to try to address it," Rothman says. The coronavirus pandemic "has in some ways made parents, teachers, and other adults more willing to see, right now, that what we do online matters and is fully part of our real lives."
Rothman and colleagues used data from the ongoing Survey on Teen Relationships and Intimate Violence (STRiV) study to look at responses from 148 boys and 172 girls who were currently in relationships or had been in relationships in the past year. The survey asked teens if a partner had ever followed or spied on them, damaged something that belonged to them, or gone through their online accounts. The survey also asked the teens if they had ever done any of these things to a partner.
They found that rates of perpetration and victimization were similar for boys and girls: 46.5 percent of boys and 50.6 percent of girls reported stalking or harassing a partner, and 44.6 percent of boys and 51.1 percent of girls reported a partner doing these things to them.
The researchers analyzed and controlled for a range of other factors to better understand why particular teens may be at higher risk of perpetration, victimization, or both.
Among boys, having worse relationships with parents and living in neighborhoods with higher rates of violent crime were both associated with higher risk of perpetration. Among girls, being in relationships at a younger age, living in neighborhoods with higher rates of violent crime, using marijuana, and using alcohol were associated with higher risk of victimization and perpetration. The researchers found that Latino boys and Black girls faced higher risk of both victimization and perpetration.
Further research will need to untangle these associations, but Rothman says the findings show that dating abuse is shaped by forces larger than the individual.
"We know from intervention research that the way to prevent stalking and harassment, or sexual and dating violence, is partly about addressing how young people think about relationships, gender norms, and improving their social-emotional skills, but these are also influenced by the context in which they are operating," she says. "So, addressing racism, poverty, homophobia, misogyny, and disability-related discrimination is part of the solution, too."
This research was supported by the National Institute of Justice. The study was coauthored by Eva Bahrami, Nnenna Okeke, and Elizabeth Mumford of NORC at the University of Chicago.
