Relationship Abuse

National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH) 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)    

National Sexual Assault Telephone and Online Hotline 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)    

National Teen Dating Abuse Hotline 1-866-331-9474    

Love is Respect 1-866-331-9474 or 1-866-331-8453    

Safe2Tell 1-877-542-7233    

Break the Cycle

• Empowering youth to end domestic violence.

Centers for disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

• Understanding Teen Dating Violence Fact sheet 2016

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

• Dating Matters: Understanding Teen Dating Violence Prevention

  • Created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this site offers a 60-minute interactive training designed to help educators, youth-serving organizations, and others working with teens to understand the risk factors and warning signs associated with teen dating violence.

  • Dating Matters interactive online course

  • Suggested Alignments with Colorado Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Standards (Sept. 2013)

  • CSSRC Staff Review - July 2013

• Rape Prevention and Education (RPE) Program

  • The goal of the RPE program, a funded program of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) is to strengthen sexual violence prevention efforts at the local, state, and national level.

  • Victimization often occurs for the first time before the age of 25 (e.g., 42% of female victims of rape in the U.S. report that they were first raped before the age of 18 and 37% report that they were first raped between the ages of 18-24).

Children's Safety Network (CSN)

• Children's Safety Network, National Resource Center for Injury and Violence Prevention is dedicated to working with state, territorial and community Maternal & Child Health and Injury & Violence prevention programs to create an environment where all children and youth are safe and healthy. We work with states and territories to infuse knowledge, expertise, and leadership to reduce injury, hospitalization, disability and death for all children and youth.

• Teen Dating Violence Resources

Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CCASA)

• CCASA promotes safety, justice, and healing for survivors while working toward the elimination of sexual violence., Provides research, resources, and training to enable Colorado communities to believe and support survivors, hold perpetrators accountable, and take action to end sexual violence.

• An Analysis of Colorado PREP Curricula: A Trauma-Informed Approach (Published - Oct. 2014)

  • In late Fall of 2013, the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CCASA) was approached by the Colorado Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) Manager regarding continued training and technical assistance for grantees on effective response to and engagement of PREP participants who have experienced, or are currently experiencing trauma. Because the PREP curricula are largely focused on sexual health and sexual health decision-making, there was particular concern for how participants who have experienced sexual abuse and/or sexual violence may be impacted by the current curricula.

  • In this report you will find:

    • Helpful information on a trauma-informed approach to working with youth.

    • Content focused on teaching youth healthy relationship skills, bodily integrity, and setting/respecting boundaries.

    • Ideas for ensuring that sexual health classes are safe spaces for youth who have experienced child sexual abuse.

    • Guidance on how reproductive coercion information can and should be integrated into pregnancy prevention.

    • Specific trauma-informed adaptations for four federally-approved sexual health curricula.

Dibble Institute

• Resources for teaching relationship skills to teens and young adults.

Journal of Adolescent Health

• Do Health and Education Agencies in the United States Share Responsibility for Academic Achievement and Health? A Review of 25 Years of Evidence About the Relationship of Adolescents' Academic Achievement and Health Behaviors

  • Published in the Journal of Adolescent Health (Jan. 2013)

  • The study found that 96.6% of studies reported statistically significant inverse relationships between health risk behaviors and academic achievement. Health risk behaviors included violence, tobacco use, alcohol and other drug use, sexual behaviors contributing to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, inadequate physical activity and unhealthy dietary behaviors. The study highlights the importance of leaders in education and health working together to make wise investments in our nation's school-aged youth that will benefit the entire population.

  • Easy to Read Summary published by the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors

• Preventing Acquaintance Rape: A Safety Guide for Teens

  • Published in 2009 by the National Childhood Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN)

Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) Sexual Assault Response Team (SART)

• SANE-SART is a program operated by the Sexual Assault Resource Service with funding from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime and the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration

• Break the Silence (video)

  • While working with communities across the US, especially in rural and Tribal communities to develop SARTs, some of the issues identified as a challenge has been the lack of awareness in their communities about SARTs, the lack of resources available to inform them of the value of developing a SART, and the value to the community of utilizing a SART once developed. This video will aid communities to better meet this need.

That's Not Cool

• Draw your own lines around what is, or is not, acceptable relationship behavior and seek help from your peers.

Urban Institute Teen Dating Abuse

• The Urban Institute gathers data, conducts research, evaluates programs, offers technical assistance overseas, and educates Americans on social and economic issues - to foster sound public policy and effective government.

• Digitizing Abuse is an Urban Institute project studying the role of technology in teen dating abuse and harassment. Knowing how many teens are affected and how they've been victimized can inform strategies to address this problem.

• Dating Violence Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Youth (Sept. 2013)

  • Media attention and the literature on lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth overwhelmingly focus on violence involving hate crimes and bullying, while ignoring the fact that vulnerable youth also may be at increased risk of violence in their dating relationships. In this study, researchers examine physical, psychological, sexual, and cyber dating violence experiences among lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth-as compared to those of heterosexual youth, and explore variations in the likelihood of help-seeking behavior and the presence of particular risk factors among both types of dating violence victims.

• Technology, Teen Dating Violence & Abuse and Bullying (July 2013)

  • The goal of this project was to expand knowledge about the types of violence and abuse experiences youth have via technology (e.g., social networking sites, texting on cell phones), and how the experience of such cyber abuse within teen dating relationships or through bullying relates to other life factors. The study's findings showed that more than a quarter (26 percent) of youth in a relationship said they experienced some form of cyber dating abuse victimization in the prior year. With regard to other findings on bullying experiences, the study showed that one in six youth (17 percent) reported being victims of cyber bullying. Fewer than one in ten youth reported perpetrating cyber bullying in the prior year.

• Teen Dating Abuse and Harassment in the Digital World: Implications for Prevention and Intervention (2013)

  • One in four dating teens is abused or harassed online or through texts by their partners, according to the largest survey to date on the subject. New technologies - social networking sites, texts, cell phones, and e-mails - have given abusers another way to control, degrade, and frighten their partners. These tools haven't pushed overall abuse rates up, but have allowed abusers to harass their victims anywhere and at anytime, even when they're apart.

• Teen Dating Resources:

  • List of resources, materials and articles that addresses teen dating violence

U.S. Department of Education

• Dear Colleague Letter - Feb. 2013 Regarding gender, based violence in schools.

• Dear Colleague Letter - April 2011 Regarding sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools.

• Gender-Based Violence Among School-Aged Youths: What Schools Can Do

• Human Trafficking of Children in the United States, Information for Schools

  • Human Trafficking of Children in the United States: A Fact Sheet for Schools (Aug. 2012)

• Questions and Answers on Title IX and Sexual Violence (April 2014)

• Questions and Answers on Title IX and Single-Sex Elementary and Secondary Classes and Extracurricular Activities - (Dec. 2014)

• Get Smart, Get Help, Get Safe: Preventing, Assessing, and Intervening in Teenage Dating Abuse, A Training for Specialized Instructional Support Personnel

  • Created by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Healthy Students Safe and Supportive Learning Center in 2013.

  • This training toolkit addresses teenage dating abuse. Specifically, it is designed for trainers to assist specialized instructional support personnel (e.g. school psychologists, social workers, school nurses, guidance counselors) in identifying, assessing, effectively intervening in, and preventing teenage dating abuse.

  • CSSRC Staff Review - March 2013

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS)

University of Illinois

• Relation Between Bully Perpetration and Teen-Dating Violence Perpetration Across Adolescence

  • Presented by Sabina Low PhD, Dorothy L. Espelage, PhD, and Carolyn Anderson, PhD,

  • Youth who engaged in high rates of self-reported bully perpetration during middle school were almost 7X more likely to self-report engaging in physical teen dating violence perpetration four years later in high school.

U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)

• Bullying, Sexual, and Dating Violence Trajectories from Early to Late Adolescence

  • Final grant research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in May 2014

  • Bullying perpetration in middle school is found to be predictive of sexual harassment and dating violence in high school for both boys and girls. The authors suggest that additional attention should be paid to teaching youth about healthy relationships and conflict management skills.

• The Experience of Dating Violence among Latino Adolescents

  • This document presents the results of a study conducted by Chiara Sabina and Carlos Cuevas, published in April 2013.

  • The National Institute of Justice funded the Dating Violence Among Latino Adolescents (DAVILA) Study which sought to gain an understanding of dating violence experienced by Latino adolescents. The study sought to understand how many Latino teens are victims of dating violence (including psychological, physical, sexual and stalking dating violence) and how dating violence overlaps with other victimization experiences (i.e., child maltreatment, conventional crime, peer and sibling victimization, sexual victimization and stalking). Further, the study examined adolescents' psychosocial functioning (i.e., depression, anxiety, hostility, school performance, delinquency), help-seeking efforts (i.e. formal and informal), culturally relevant characteristics (i.e. immigrant status, acculturation, and familyism) and social support.

• National Institute of Justice (NIJ)

  • Family Context Is an Important Element in the Development of Teen Dating Violence and Should Be Considered in Prevention and Intervention

  • Intimate Partner Violence

  • Teen Dating Violence

    • Prevalence of Teen Dating Violence

    • Effective Prevention and Intervention for Schools, Families, and Groups

  • Teen Dating Violence: How Peers Can Affect Risk and Protective Factors (Nov. 2014)

• Office for Victims of Crime (OVC)

  • OVC is a component of the Office of Justice Programs U.S. Department of Justice.

  • Teen Dating Violence (Publications & Resources)

• Shifting Boundaries: Final Report on an Experimental Evaluation of a Youth Dating Violence Prevention Program in New York City Middle Schools

  • A 2011 National Institute of Justice (NIJ) study has found that school-level interventions reduced dating violence as much as 50 percent in 30 New York City public schools. These interventions included using school-based restraining orders, increasing faculty and security presence in dating violence "hot spots" and hanging posters to increase awareness of the issue and encourage students to report it to officials. NIJ is a research branch of the Office of Justice Programs at the U.S. Department of Justice.

  • Read a press release about the study

Youth Sexual Health in Colorado: A Call to Action

• Published by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment in 2012 as part of the Colorado 9to25 youth health initiative.

• The Call to Action addresses youth, defined here as ages 9-24, families and communities across the state of Colorado and provides strategies for communities to improve the health of young people by:

  1. decreasing rates of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV

  2. decreasing the rates of unintended teen pregnancy

  3. decreasing the incidence of sexual assault and dating violence, and

  4. increasing participation by youth in educational and career opportunities.

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