Let’s Stop It Before It Starts: TDV Prevention Through Education
By Janice Tuck, Community Outreach Supervisor at Project R.E.S.T.
Teen dating violence is common with 1 in 12 high school students experiencing physical dating violence and 1 in 10 experiencing sexual dating violence, but we know many teens never report it.¹ Female, racial, and ethnic minority populations, and LGBTQ+ youth experience disproportionate rates of victimization.²
In the United States, an estimated 1.5 million high school students are abused by a dating partner and 1 in 4 teen girls in relationships are repeatedly verbally abused.³
Verbal abuse is a very common precursor to physical abuse. While verbal abuse may not be illegal,* that doesn’t mean it isn’t harmful. Victims tell us psychological, emotional, and verbal abuse is intense, unrelenting, and cumulative. It builds up over time, conditioning the victim to accept more abuse and escalating violence.
We know the more a culture tolerates or perceives abusive behaviors as normal in intimate partner relationships, the more prevalent those behaviors are, the higher the incidence of victim-blaming, and the less likely victims are to report.⁴
Image courtesy of OneLoveFoundation. Learn more about 10 signs of healthy and unhealthy relationships.
At Project R.E.S.T. we seek to prevent abuse before it starts. We go “upstream,” teaching youth to recognize healthy and unhealthy friendship/relationship behaviors. Behavior patterns that emerge during elementary school roll right into relationship behaviors in middle/high school and beyond: The elementary school bully is predisposed to becoming an abusive partner and the victim of the bully is predisposed to becoming a victim of IPV.
“Early exposure to unhealthy relationship dynamics modeled by family members and other adults substantially increases the odds of teens repeating those behaviors in their own relationships,” explained Project R.E.S.T. Clinical Services Director Tiffany Beeks. “Therapeutic interventions can help break this cycle of abuse by offering alternative ways of understanding and responding to relationship challenges.”
In violence prevention education we provide structured training in the social skills needed to establish bonds grounded in trust, mutual respect, and healthy boundaries.
We use age-appropriate, evidence-based, CDC and SC Department of Public Health-approved curricula to explore what it means to treat ourselves and others with respect, how to respond to a bully, effective communication, healthy coping skills, and how to best honor and express ourselves as the unique, beautiful individuals we each are.
If your organization is interested in violence prevention education training, please reach out to Janice Tuck at Project R.E.S.T. at (864) 583-9803 or janice.tuck@projectrest.org.
*Persistent verbal abuse may be included in criminal charges ranging from harassment to stalking under SC law, SC Code § 16-3-1700 (2023).
Sources:
- 1, 2. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. “Intimate Partner Violence Prevention.” January 14, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/intimate-partner-violence/about/about-teen-dating-violence.html Accessed 2.3.2025
- 3. One Love Foundation. “1 in 3 adolescents is a victim of abuse by a dating partner.” 2025. https://www.joinonelove.org/learn/teen_dating_violence_awareness_month/ Accessed 2.3.2025.
- 4. Soteria Solutions. Bringing in the Bystander, College Edition. 2021. University of New Hampshire. https://www.soteriasolutions.org/.
