Adolescents are influenced by their friends, fads, music,
television, and other forms of social media; they influence how they behave. Teenagers want to be liked and accepted by their
friends, so they tend to behave as their friends do, no matter the consequences. So,
it is important that adults recognize that dating violence is also influenced
by their friend’s opinion(s) (Stephenson,
Martsolf, & Draucker, 2013).
Teenagers impact their
friends who are in abusive relationships by being the person who they talk to
about the abuse, cheating or flirting with a boyfriend or girlfriend, and or
asking their friend to leave the abusive relationship. Also, teens will make their boyfriend or
girlfriend mad by talking about how much they like someone from the opposite
sex. Examples of how adolescents get
involved in their friends abusive relationships are: watching the abusive act,
keeping tabs on the person being abused, encouraging their friend to abuse their
boyfriend or girlfriend, and some friends will stop being friends when they
find out their friend is being abused (Stephenson et al., 2013)
So how do we use
friend to help stop dating violence?
- We can have discussions with teenagers on they think they are involved in the dating violence of their friends.
- We can use short videos that show scenarios about dating violence and ask teenagers to tell us how the friends of the abusive person was involved in the relationship.
References
Stephenson, P. S., Martsolf,
D., & Draucker, C. B. (2013). Peer involvement in adolescent dating
violence. The Journal of School Nursing, 29(3), 204-11.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1059840512469232
