FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND APP SIMULATES DATING ABUSE IN AN EFFORT TO TEACH PARENTS ABOUT THE DANGERS OF TEEN
New Study Reveals Parents Talk Significantly Less About Dating Abuse Than Any Other Risky Behavior, Even Though the Consequences Can Be Severe and Long-Lasting
New York, New York — August 10, 2011 — The National Network to End Domestic Violence, Break the Cycle, the National Dating Abuse Helpline, loveisrespect.org, and the Joyful Heart Foundation along with Liz Claiborne Inc. announced today the launch of the Love Is Not Abuse iPhone application (app), an educational resource for parents that demonstrates the dangers of digital dating abuse and provides much needed information on the growing problem of teen dating violence and abuse. Tim Gunn, Liz Claiborne Inc. Chief Creative Officer and Judge Jeanine Pirro joined families who have been touched by dating violence at an event to officially release the app, now available free of charge in the iTunes App Store, and highlight the urgent need for resources that empower parents to talk to their children about this issue. The release of the app is particularly timely, given the results of a new study released this month, supported in part by Liz Claiborne Inc. and a grant from the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA). According to lead researcher Emily Rothman, Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH), parents in the U.S. are substantially less likely to talk with their adolescent children about the dangers of dating abuse than sex, drugs or alcohol. The study, which appears in the August issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, is the first to estimate the proportion of U.S. parents that have discussed dating abuse in the past year with their children ages 11 to 18 years old.
Dating abuse can result in injury, death and mental health problems including suicidal thoughts, substance use, disordered eating and depression. As many as 10 percent of U.S. high school students report having been hit, slapped or physically hurt on purpose by their boyfriend or girlfriend in the past year, according to the authors.
One of the most important lessons from this study, said Rothman, is that “parents need more and better information about dating abuse, including how important it is to raise this issue with their children, just like they are already doing when it comes to sex, drugs and drinking.”
The app was designed to aggregate the top resources in the field so parents do not have to search exhaustively for help, and instead can find information from leading experts and organizations in just one easy-to-access place. The app provides parents with facts on teen dating abuse, helps them recognize abusive behaviors, directs them to immediate help if they suspect their child is in an abusive relationship and offers tips on how to talk to their teen about dating abuse.
In addition, the app affords a rare insight for parents into what it feels like for their teen to be a victim of digital dating abuse by mimicking the actual communications abused teens receive - in many cases, all day and night. Parents receive increasingly threatening text messages, emails and phone calls from a ‘boyfriend’ or ‘girlfriend.’ Videos on privacy invasion, deleting a partner’s friends on social networks and unauthorized access to a boyfriend or girlfriend’s social networks teach parents about the destructive behaviors common in digitally abusive relationships.
"One of the foremost challenges in dating abuse is understanding that using power and control over a dating partner often goes beyond physical violence,” said Cindy Southworth, founder of the National Network to End Domestic Violence’s Safety Net Technology Project and app expert contributor. “When parents know concrete examples of what can constitute dating abuse, they are better-equipped to support their children. This app is an important tool that works to end dating violence by shining the light on it in all of its nuances.”
Love Is Not Abuse partners who guided the app creative process and whose resources are highlighted in the app include: The National Network to End Domestic Violence, Joyful Heart Foundation, Verizon Foundation, Wired Safety, Break the Cycle, Love Is Respect, MTV, Futures Without Violence, Seventeen Magazine, Mom Central and the American School Counselors Association.
“Despite the fact that one in four teens are victimized through technology, our research shows that parents are dangerously out of touch with the high levels of dating violence and abuse taking place in their children’s lives,” said Jane Randel, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications, Liz Claiborne Inc. “By using the very same technology that threatens teens to show parents what to watch out for, we aim to put dating abuse, in all its forms, on the radar for parents. Our hope is that the app will wake parents up to the truly terrible reality of teen dating abuse and get them to talking to their kids about dating relationships – both healthy and abusive.”
The app was developed Charles Kliment, Founder and Principal Designer, KAJA circle and Eric Mansfield and Chris Mollis, Co-Founders and Principal Software Engineers, AppsOnTheSide.
The Love Is Not Abuse app can be downloaded in the iTunes App Store under search word ‘LINA.’
About Liz Claiborne Inc.
Since 1991 Liz Claiborne Inc. has been working to end domestic violence. Through its Love Is Not Abuse program, the company provides information and tools that men, women, teens and corporate executives can use to learn more about the issue and find out how they can help end this epidemic. www.loveisnotabuse.com.
Study Methodology and Additional Findings
Rothman and colleagues surveyed 500 parents of 11 to 18 year old children from across the nation in 2009. Parents were asked to report whether or not they had discussed nine different topics with their children in the past year, including family finances, sex, drugs, alcohol, dating and abuse in dating relationships.
The research team found that overall, approximately half (55%) of parents reported talking about dating abuse with their children in the past year, while 75% had discussed sex, 90% had discussed drugs, and 82% had discussed alcohol. Parents’ age, income, and region of the U.S. were not related to having discussed dating abuse, but the age and gender of their children did matter. Parents who had not talked with their children about dating abuse reported that the reasons for this were that their children were too young, weren’t dating, that the child would learn about it from experience, that it would be too embarrassing for the child, or that they would not know what to say to their child about the topic.
Besides Rothman, co-authors of the study include Elizabeth Miller, MD; Jane Randel, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications, Liz Claiborne Inc.; Anne Glauber, Executive Vice President and Director of Global Issues Practice Ruder Finn; and Amy Terpeluk, Senior Vice President of Global Issues Practice at Ruder Finn.
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