We know that teens who are at risk of dating violence are those who have grown up with a history of maltreatment, or who maybe have been bullied or are being bullied. They have friends who are aggressive. Perhaps they use substances. Some LGBTQ2+ youth also experience teen dating violence, including some who have not disclosed their orientation.
If you look at something like the health behaviour of school-aged children survey, which is a self-reported survey of around 30,000 young people, we see that approximately 30% of Canadian youth in grades 9 and 10 have reported being victimized at some point in their lifetime. About one in five have reported experiencing physical dating violence. About one in ten have experienced sexual dating violence.
Clearly this is an important issue. We know that younger women, in particular those aged 15 to 19, are eight times more likely than women aged 25 years and older to have been sexually assaulted by an intimate partner in the previous 12 months. It's that really critical 15- to 19-year age range. They are just getting into their intimate lives and are finding it very difficult sometimes to manage the amount of violence that they would be confronting.
It absolutely is a significant public health issue, because we know that when unhealthy relationships become entrenched, they can extend across a lifetime and have intergenerational impacts as well.
I'll stop there because I don't want to take all the time. That's just to give you a bit of an overview of the issue.