Start Strong Building Healthy Teen Relationships

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POLICY & ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

 

Creating safe and supportive environments in which youth can have healthy relationships require altering community-level environmental factors that affect teen dating and sexual violence. Organizational settings, such as schools and after-school programs, are critical levers for reinforcing positive messages while enforcing explicit expectations and codes of conduct that promote healthy relationships. Other sites such as teen counseling services, reproductive health settings and other youth-serving organizations can integrate messages about healthy relationships and IPV prevention into protocols and practices.

Model School Policy

Futures Without Violence and Break the Cycle have produced a model school policy to promote healthy relationships and prevent teen dating violence through improving the school climate. Support for this policy, toolkit, and appendix was provided by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as part of the Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships intiative. It is designed to assist schools in creating plans of action for the promotion of healthy teen relationships and the prevention and response to teen dating violence.

State Laws on Teen Dating Violence

Our leaders and policymakers can play a critical role in preventing teen dating violence. Some states have adopted Teen Dating Violence Awareness weeks or months. At least seven states have laws that require or strongly urges school boards to develop curriculum on teen dating violence. Their efforts have helped to draw the public's attention to a national campaign that promotes prevention, safe dating practices, and offers information and resources.

Summary of state laws and legislation around teen dating violence. › more

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): YRBSS

The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) monitors priority health-risk behaviors that include the following six categories:

  • behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence;
  • tobacco use;
  • alcohol and other drug use;
  • sexual behaviors that contribute to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection;
  • unhealthy dietary behaviors; and
  • physical inactivity.

It includes a national school-based survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in addition to state, territorial, tribal, and local surveys conducted by state, territorial, and local education organizations, health agencies and tribal governments. Follow the link to learn more about the YRBSS. › more