Researchers at the University of Minnesota have found a link between teenage dating violence and health problems like binge eating, cigarette smoking, alcohol and marijuana use, and depression.

Dr. Diann Ackard of the University of Minnesota surveyed 23 boys and 102 girls who had experienced dating violence and compared their health to that of 671 boys and 102 girls without such a history in interviews in 1999 and then again in 2004.

Dr. Ackard, writing in the Journal of Pediatrics, reports that about 20% of teenage girls and 10% of teenage boys are abused sexually or physically by dating partners every year.

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Labels: dating, mental_health, violence