TORONTO, February 12, 2007 -- With Valentine's Day approaching, it appears that young love may not be all that it's cracked up to be. York Professor Jennifer Connolly takes a sobering look at the dark side of some teenage romances.
Connolly has been involved in three major studies examining violence in high-school dating, and the results she's found are disturbing. "A shocking 30 per cent of adolescents will have experienced aggression in a romantic relationship within the last six months," she says.
Though most of this aggression is relatively minor, (e.g. teasing, gossiping, pushing, grabbing), she has uncovered more severe forms (e.g. hitting, slapping, slamming someone against a wall).
Director of York's LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence & Conflict Resolution, Connolly’s recent research focuses around the reasons for this aggression.
"Our hypothesis is that there is some correlation in interpersonal aggression across the life span. We have already seen evidence that in Grades 5 to 8, kids who bully are more likely to report aggression in romantic relationships. In fact, those earlier research findings are partly what sparked our current study of high-school students."
She now wants to know if that correlation continues into high-school dating and beyond. A cross-national study she undertook in 2005, in collaboration with an institute in Rome, dealt with teens in Canada and Italy. Connolly said her research team wanted to explore what was happening in teen romances in other countries, "and we discovered the amount of aggression was about equal in both."
Connolly, with York colleague Debra Pepler and several other co-investigators, carried out research in three Canadian cities, studying over 2,500 high-school students who have parental approval to be involved in the research project.
"We want to understand why adolescent dating couples will sometimes resort to aggression when they get into conflict situations. Boys and girls of this age in equal numbers tell us they have not only experienced receiving aggression, but have also given it. Why is this happening?" asks Connolly.
"The causes are likely to be found in patterns of interaction established in prior relationships, as well as in the societal context."
So far, Connolly has examined two main roots: media violence and peer group aggression. "These in turn can shape teens' attitudes to be more tolerant of the use of aggression in response to relationship problems."
Teens are continually faced with violence through various forms of media. According to Connolly, over 70 per cent of adolescents identify with the image, style and behaviour of their favourite characters in TV shows and movies and of their most-admired musicians. Slightly more say their favourite programs, films, music, video games, Web sites and magazines contain violent content.
In fact, 52 per cent of students interviewed believe teens are influenced by the media in their dating and sexual relationships. "Students who say they are aggressive in romantic relationships are more likely to say they consume higher levels of aggressive media content," Connolly says.
"Adolescents in peer groups that have high levels of aggression tend to carry that aggression into romantic teen relationships, too. And we also see that bullying in the early years has a role to play. Both of these influences are indirect and lead to romantic aggression through teens' attitudes of the acceptability of aggression as a means of resolving conflict."
Although the study isn't looking at a teen's home life as a predictor of later aggressive tendencies, other research shows that families with high levels of hostility or aggression are part of a chain of events leading to dating violence.
When the research is complete and the data analyzed, Connolly hopes to find ways to prevent dating violence. She is currently evaluating a youth-led high-school program to prevent violence between peers.
York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 190,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 11 faculties and 23 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.
-30-
Media contact:
Melissa Hughes, Media Relations, York University, 416 736 2100 x22097 / mehughes@yorku.ca
