Educating teens about abusive relationships helps them build skills to prevent teen dating violence as well as domestic violence in their adult years. In dating situations, youth test their concepts of masculinity, femininity, respect, mutuality, and communication. Dating relationships reinforce unhealthy gender stereotypes unless they are based on clear communication, trust, and nonviolent ways of settling conflict. Many victims of domestic violence, too, are young women.
Experts believe that violence between dating teens is severely under-reported.
Established in 1986, the Boston-area program aims to prevent boys and girls from learning to accept violence in their earliest relationships. Student participants report that the program not only taught them the characteristics of abusive relationships but how to get out of abusive relationships. The Governor's Commission on Domestic Violence has endorsed a plan to bring DVIP-inspired initiatives to additional communities through intervention programs for batterers, training for school staff, and inclusion of dating violence prevention workshops in conferences sponsored by the state's education department. The curriculum has also been used in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.