For example, there are few domestic violence shelters that can accommodate teenage women. Asking adults for assistance creates a risk for the young woman of not being believed, having her situation and feelings belittled, and being blamed for her victimization. Furthermore, when a teenager is seeking to develop her sense of self and liberate herself from adult authority, it is difficult for her to turn to her parents or teachers about a problem she is having in her relationship. Although adult women in domestic violence situations are also often disbelieved, underage girls do not have the same independence or decision-making power that adult women do. Additionally, they may have fewer opportunities for economic independence because of their lack of schooling, provisions of the new welfare law that require teen mothers to be living in an adult-supervised household, and financial dependence of themselves, their children, or other family members on the batterer.
Adolescence is a time for developing self-identity and achieving independence.
Sadly, it is also often a time for assuming rigid gender roles and succumbing to peer pressure. These gender roles may encourage young women to be mediators and caregivers while promoting the silencing of their own needs and desires. Peer pressure to be in a relationship and the status assigned to teenage girls who have boyfriends also conspire to trap young women in abusive relationships. Because status is often accorded to girls who date older men, young women are at-risk of becoming involved in relationships with an unequal distribution of power. Young women also may not be able to distinguish between loving behavior and abusive behavior if they have grown up in households where abuse has been called love.