Dating Violence, Sexual Violence and Bullying Among U.S. High School Students, 2019

Dating violence, sexual violence and bullying are adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) — and, in CDC's 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), a common part of high school. The survey reached a nationally representative sample of 13,677 public and private school students in grades 9–12 across the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

What students reported

All figures cover the 12 months before the survey. Dating violence was asked only of the roughly two thirds of students who had dated.

Half of the students who reported sexual violence had been victimized only by someone other than a dating partner — so prevention can't stop at dating relationships. Perpetrators in youth can be acquaintances, family members, people in authority and strangers.

Who reported more

Female students, lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) students, and students not sure of their sexual identity reported the highest levels of all five kinds of violence.

Race and ethnicity made a difference only for bullying — and here white students reported the most:

Hispanic students also reported more electronic bullying than Black students. The authors caution that the YRBS asks directly whether students were "bullied," and earlier research suggests Black students may under-report on questions worded that way, compared with ones that describe the behavior.

How often

How many times students who experienced each kind of violence said it happened in the previous year. Image from CDC's report

For each kind of violence, once was the most common answer. Physical dating violence was U-shaped — most common once or four or more times — while for the two kinds of sexual violence, fewer students reported each higher frequency.

Boys were less likely to report victimization, but those who did more often reported it happening four or more times:

Earlier research among high-risk youth found the same pattern for sexual dating violence; boys may also be more willing to disclose violence that has happened more than once.

What helps

CDC's technical packages for violence prevention collect the strategies with the best evidence, covering sexual violence, intimate partner violence (including dating violence) and youth violence (including bullying). Approaches tied to these findings:

• Social-emotional learning — building skills in communication, managing emotions, empathy and respect — has been reported to reduce adolescent sexual violence perpetration and homophobic name-calling.
• Bystander programs teach young people to step in safely when they see warning signs, and to shift their peer group's norms.
• Changing the school environment — including fixing the spots students say feel unsafe — has been reported to cut sexual violence by peers and dating partners.
• Safe, supportive schools for LGBT students — school connectedness, staff training, and gay-straight alliances — can lower their risk of bullying and other violence. Where states and large districts asked about gender identity in 2017, transgender students consistently reported more violence than their cisgender peers.
• Dating Matters, CDC's comprehensive middle school dating-violence model, works with youths, families, schools and neighborhoods.
• Since 2001, CDC's Rape Prevention and Education Program has funded sexual violence prevention by health departments in all 50 states, D.C. and four territories.

The authors argue prevention works best when it tackles these experiences at several levels at once — individual, relationship, school and community — and recognizes that they often occur together.

Limits

• About 3,400 students had no answers on the sexual violence questions, mostly because some schools used a questionnaire version without them.
• Each kind of violence was measured by a single question, and the survey doesn't cover other violence young people face in their communities — which may help explain why few racial or ethnic differences appeared.
• Electronic and in-school bullying likely overlap, so the report gives only "any bullying."

State and subgroup estimates are on CDC's Youth Online site, and the full 2019 questionnaire is online.

Sources

Based on Kathleen C. Basile, Heather B. Clayton, Sarah DeGue, John W. Gilford, Kevin J. Vagi, Nicolas A. Suarez, Marissa L. Zwald and Richard Lowry, "Interpersonal Violence Victimization Among High School Students — Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2019," MMWR Supplements, volume 69, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain.