In the US, 1.5 million teens experience dating abuse each year. Young women ages 16-24 experience the highest rates of violence-nearly triple the overall average. If girls are to live free from violence and fear, we must empower them to speak out on their own behalf. The Pepsi Refresh Project is providing funds for organizations to do something amazing and Break the Cycle, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering youth to end domestic violence is contending for these funds. With $250,000, Break the Cycle will invite 120 Girl Scouts ages 15-17 and 40 female college-students to become peer ambassadors against dating abuse. Participants will travel to Washington, DC for a 2-day training to become leaders in this movement! Over the next year, these young women will educate and inspire other Girl Scouts in their region, using service-learning activities to help over 50,000 girls. Charged by their peers to educate five others, these 50,000 youth will help give a total of 250,000 young people the life-saving knowledge needed to create safe, healthy and happy futures.

Please help us give all teens the right to safe, healthy relationships by voting for Break the Cycle's project; click here now!

Please consider giving a small donation ($25 or more) to Break the Cycle's Brick Campaign to end Dating Violence. Dating violence harms one out of every three teens in the United States. You can do something to lower that number. Join me in building thesafespace.org - a virtual environment that provides teens the opportunity to ask questions, share stories, and get advice. Please buy a brick!

What can you do if you or someone you care about is in an unhealthy dating relationship?

• Know the warning signs of an abusive boyfriend or girlfriend! They are someone who may be jealous and possessive, make fun of you or threaten you in public or by email/phone/text/facebook wall, tell you what to do, have an explosive temper and be prone to severe mood swings, prevent you from doing things you want to do or seeing/communicating with friends/family, exert financial control within the relationship, have a history of violence, and/or "check up" repeatedly on where you are, your conversations by phone/email/text.

• Listen to the person vent about the relationship and help them see the problems, or if you are in that relationship please turn for help. Violence in a relationship should not be tolerated. Someone who is an abuser is likely to abuse again, no matter how often they apologize and promise to stop, or how much they try to "make it up."

• Be a role model for healthy relationships. Advocate against violence in relationships by starting with your own relationship - choose a partner with whom you can truly be a partner, not a possession. Look for open communication, companionship, compassion, and the right to say "no" to things that don't fit how you want your relationships to be.

• Develop an "exit strategy" for getting out of the relationship. This may include obtaining a restraining order, informing many family and friends that you are getting out of the relationship and telling them what they can do to help, and developing a plan for what you will do in the likely event that the violence escalates during the course of the break up. Plan carefully for how you will break up, who will be there for you for protection, and how you will be safe.

• Know that you deserve better. Healthy relationships are for everyone. Believe in yourself and that you can find someone who will treat you right!

Dating violence is considered a significant yet nonspecific risk factor for a host of implications to one's overall health. What does that mean? The 'significant' part means that research has regularly demonstrated that individuals who have been violated by a dating partner are more likely than those who have not been violated by a dating partner to report these problems. However, the 'nonspecific' part means that we don't know which problems might occur for one person who has been violated by a dating partner versus another.

Here are some of the highly concerning health implications that are associated with dating violence:
• dieting • disordered eating behaviors such as using laxatives, diet pills, or self-induced vomiting • binge-eating • suicidal thoughts • suicide attempts • poorer psychological health • depression • anxiety •  lower self-esteem • poorer quality of life •  overall dissatisfaction with life and with friends • poor perceived physical health •  cigarette smoking • use or abuse of alcohol and drugs • high-risk sexual behaviors that could lead to unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections

So why don't more youth exit these relationships if these violent relationships have such negative implications? One reason is because they have been threatened - We know that nearly 50% of girls and boys who have experienced both physical and sexual dating violence report staying in the relationship out of fear of physical harm! (Ackard, Neumark-Sztainer & Hannan, 2003). Another reason pertains to the interpretation of the violence - Only 5% of adolescents thought that violence signified hate, whereas approximately 1 in 3 interpreted violence as love (Henton et al., 1983). Finally, only 32% of male and 44% of female adolescents who report dating violence seek help (Ashley & Foshee, 2005) and the health care community is not adequately screening for these problems - Only 12% of boys and 13% of girls reported that their health care provider has ever asked about any type of physical or sexual abuse (Ackard & Neumark-Sztainer, 2001).

Sparked by a flurry of news stories about significant domestic violence in the relationship of celebrities Chris Brown and Rihanna, the issue of dating violence has been in the spotlight recently. Dating violence has significant deleterious effects on the overall health and well-being of individuals, and it is important that we understand fully the facts pertaining to this issue. First and foremost is understanding the definition of dating violence and that it can take the form of emotional, physical, or sexual abuse - it does not have to leave a physical mark in order for it to be abuse.

• Emotional dating violence means saying or doing something to the other person that causes that person to be fearful or have lower self-esteem (examples include manipulation, name-calling, insults, threats and intimidating acts, spreading rumors, guilting the other person).

• Physical dating violence is defined as any intentional unwanted contact with the other person's body, including but not limited to slapping, shoving, pushing, kicking, pulling hair, burning, biting, choking and scratching.

• Sexual dating violence includes unwanted sexual behaviors that interfere with the other person's right to say "no" to sexual advances. This includes unwanted kissing or touching, unwanted rough or violent sexual activity, not letting someone use birth control or protection against sexually transmitted infections, forcing someone to go further sexually than he or she wants to, and date rape.

Given the study findings on the pervasiveness of adolescent dating violence and its consequences, here are my thoughts about what we can do to change prevention efforts and help those who have been violated.

First, I think it's very important to remember that dating violence can occur against girls as well as boys. Second, prevention efforts such as those by families, schools, religious and community organizations, and clubs, should include forums to discuss appropriate dating interactions and safer dating formats, and to strategize ways to handle high-risk situations when they arise. Furthermore, provide ample resources and opportunities for youth to talk about their dating experiences, such as by having pamphlets in guidance and doctors' offices, and offering small group or one-to-one discussions. Third, it's important to be sensitive to the fact that adolescence is a time of normative changes to the body, and it is often difficult for all youth to integrate a positive body image into their sense of self. Yet abusive experiences violate the body and consequently can create difficulties in the development of a positive body image. Disordered eating behaviors may be ways in which adolescents attempt to render the body "unattractive," possibly to deter further abuse or punish the body as the site of the abuse, or may help to alleviate or reduce the painful emotions related to abuse. Despite the perceived helpful nature of eating disorder symptoms, the medical and psychological consequences are highly detrimental and warrant effective treatment. Finally, it's valuable to understand that adolescent dating violence is a nonspecific risk factor for mental health problems. What does this mean? This means that not everyone who is violated by a dating partner will develop the same problems as another peer who is violated; it also means that we cannot assume that a teen who is struggling with alcohol problems or eating disorders has been abused by a dating partner. It does mean that we need to protect our youth from dating violence, help them navigate dating relationships, and provide opportunities for talking and healing when violence does occur.

If you have been abused by a dating partner or know someone who has, you can receive support and guidance by visiting the National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline at http://loveisrespect.org.

Because of my clinical work in eating disorders, which predominantly affect younger individuals, I have had the joy of working with many adolescents. Yet I have been alarmed in hearing of numerous unhealthy dating experiences, either their own or those of their friends. Subsequently, one of my primary areas of focus has been on adverse dating experiences among adolescents.

• In 2002, we published the largest study to date on adolescent dating violence. In a survey of over 81,247 Minnesota youth, we found that a worrisome 9% of girls and 6% of boys had experienced either physical or sexual violence by a dating partner. Of further concern, dating violence was found to be associated with higher rates of disordered eating behaviors (such as binge-eating, fasting or skipping meals, taking diet pills, self-induced vomiting, and taking laxatives) and suicidal thoughts and attempts, and lower scores on measures of emotional well-being and self-esteem. Visit the American Psychological Association's press release for this article.
• In 2003, we published a follow-up study of over 3,000 youth who completed the Commonwealth Fund Survey of the Health of Adolescent Boys and Girls. With this nationally representative population-based sample, and using a different definition of physical or sexual violence by a dating partner, our findings showed that an alarmingly high 17% of girls and 9% of boys reported adolescent dating violence. Dating violence was found to be associated with a broad range of behavioral and mental health risks, including dieting, binge-eating and purging behaviors, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, drug use, suicidal thoughts, depression, and poorer self-esteem for both girls and boys. Of particular concern was our finding that approximately 50% of girls and boys who had experienced physical and sexual dating violence also reported staying in relationships out of fear of physical harm.