When Dating Turns Dangerous

Product Description

Dating is an important part of teenage life, but for more and more teenagers, it has come to include physical and emotional assault. Program addresses the growing problem of dating violence, describes the patterns it takes and why abusers act the way they do, and how the abuse gradually destroys a victim’s self-esteem. Asserting that abusers won’t change without treatment, offers effective strategies for helping a victim reestablish a normal life.

Defines abuse as mistreatment aimed at controlling and maintaining power over another person, most often a male over a female. Using vignettes and a social worker narrator, details how the abuse stems from the abuser’s tremendous dependency needs and develops in phases — from “honeymoon” to tension to explosion. Points out that teens often don’t know what’s normal in a relationship, attributes their willingness to suffer abuse to the myth that abuse occurs because “he loves me.”

Describes how traditional gender stereotypes subtly reinforce the abuse, and how the dynamics of secrecy and denial operate to keep the relationship going. Shows students in an abusive relationship that they did not cause the abuse nor can they control or change the abuser. Helps them understand that by ending the relationship, they can get back to a normal life.