Six in ten who reported sexual violence were hurt by someone they were dating

The 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey asked US high school students about six
kinds of interpersonal violence in the past year, plus forced sex in their
lifetime.

The overlap

**Of the 11.0% reporting sexual violence by anyone, 59.5% also reported
sexual teen dating violence.**

For nearly six in ten, "anyone" was a partner.

That matters for what prevention looks like. A programme built around stranger
danger, or around avoiding risky situations, addresses the minority of these
experiences. The majority happened within a relationship the student was
choosing to be in.

The trends do not all point the same way

A decade of decline in dating violence and bullying; and, inside it, **three
measures that turned and rose again** — sexual dating violence since 2019,
sexual violence since 2017, forced sex since 2015.

The overall story is improvement. The recent story, for the sexual violence
measures specifically, is not.

Who it happens to

**Disparities were observed for every form assessed among female students, and
for most forms among:**

• Racial and ethnic minority students
• Students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning or other
• Students who reported sexual contacts as same sex only, or both sexes

This report also provides **the first national estimates among Native Hawaiian
or other Pacific Islander youths** — a group previously folded into an "other"
category and therefore invisible in every earlier round.

Why it is measured at all

These experiences in adolescence are associated with **later revictimisation,
substance use, physical and mental health problems, and suicidal ideation.**

Which is the argument for the survey: the harm is not confined to the year it
is reported in, so a percentage among sixteen-year-olds is a forecast as well
as a count.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, MMWR Supplements.