Start Strong program announces findings that abuse is common in ...

The first round of data was released Thursday as part of one organization's nationwide campaign to educate teenagers about the dangers of abusive relationships.

Start Strong, a nationwide program operating in 11 communities, including Oakland, provides educational outreach for youth and families to help them to recognize and deal with psychological and physical abuse in relationships.

Representatives of several of the program's partners announced the findings at a news conference in San Francisco's Marriott Marquis hotel
Thursday.

The program operates after-school workshops with youth volunteers from local high schools, family dinner nights to educate entire families about the dangers of abusive relationships and participates in Oakland events, said Edwards, an attorney with Oakland's Family Violence Law Center.

Oakland was one of 580 cities that applied for the initiative, which provides funding to existing domestic violence prevention groups, like the Family Violence Law Center, to bring the educational curriculum to middle schools.

"We need to start earlier in life and start a comprehensive public approach" to preventing domestic violence, said Peter Long, President and CEO of the Blue Shield of California Foundation, a partner in developing the Start Strong programs.

The data, gathered by RTI International for Start Strong, gave 1,430 students written questionnaires in the fall of 2010, indicates that many students are dating in middle school and have already encountered physical and psychological abuse in relationships.

A total of eight middle schools were surveyed nationwide, including four with Start Strong programs and four without.

According to the survey, 75 percent of seventh grade students reported ever having a boyfriend or girlfriend, 37 percent indicated they had been victims of psychological dating violence in the past six months, 15 percent were a victim of physical dating violence, and 37 percent had been a victim of sexual harassment.

"We don't know nearly enough about dating and relationships in middle school and we need to know more," said Deborah Gibbs, deputy program director for the Women, Children and Families program.

"Not only are they dating, but they're already experiencing dating aggression and dating violence," she said.

According to Tri-Valley Haven, which provides information and counseling for teens who have experienced abuse, young women between the ages of 16 and 24 experience the highest rates of dating violence in the U.S. Dating violence includes stalking, assault, battery, cyber-bullying, excessive texting, verbal abuse and rape.

Teen Esteem, a local group aimed at educating students about risky behavior such as drug use and bullying, also presents information about abusive relationships at health and career development classes.

"What we do is we talk to kids a lot about healthy relationships and we will get feedback from students who say they aren't in healthy relationships," said Teen Esteem Director Linda Turnbull. "Often times it's because they don't have healthy relationships modeled in their home life. There's a lot of hurting kids, a lot of lonely kids, so they're willing to put up things that aren't so healthy for them."

Turnbull did not have figures on the number of unhealthy teen relationships in the San Ramon Valley.

Bay City News Service Contributed to this story.

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