Hanging Out or Hooking Up?

For one in five U.S. teen girls, the most vivid memories of high school will not be her junior prom or a favorite history teacher. Instead,20% of teen girls will remember the physical abuse inflicted by someone they were dating.

Teen victims of relationship abuse are more likely to report unhealthy diet behaviors, engage in substance abuse, and report having suicidal thoughts. Given these sobering facts, adolescent relationship abuse is a major health concern facing teens today, and health care providers have a unique role to play in preventing it. Not only can they provide valuable prevention messages to help their patients build healthy relationships, but medical professionals are also uniquely positioned to help those exposed to abuse find the resources they need. And now, healthcare providers have a new tool that will make it easier than ever to integrate screening for relationship abuse and prevention into their practice.

Futures Without Violence has developed Hanging Out or Hooking Up: Clinical Guidelines on Responding to Adolescent Relationship Abuse – An Integrated Approach to Prevention and Intervention, focusing on the transformative role of the adolescent health care provider in preventing, identifying and addressing adolescent relationship abuse. These guidelines are applicable to providers working in a range of settings serving adolescents, including adolescent health, pediatrics, family planning clinics, and school-based health centers.

The Adolescent Relationship Abuse Clinical Guidelines Include:

• Definitions, prevalence, and dimensions of Adolescent Relationship Abuse (ARA)
• An overview of confidentiality and reporting issues and patient-centered reporting
• Clinical strategies to promote universal education about healthy relationships
• Clinical strategies to provide direct assessment and harm reduction strategies for reproductive coercion and ARA
• An overview of preparing your practice to address ARA
• Keys for success, including developing relationships with local domestic violence advocates and community programs
• Policy recommendations

Safety Card: Order free hard copies of the Hanging Out or Hooking Up safety card in English or Spanish. Download a PDF version of the English or Spanish safety card.

Poster: Order free hard copies of the Hanging Out or Hooking Up poster. Download a PDF version of the poster.