February 17th, 2012 | 
Author: Dr Brownwen Carroll has worked as a children’s doctor for several years in Boston and decided to carry out her own survey.
After questioning 327 patients, more than 50% revealed they had been physically attacked.
She told Newsbeat: “I expected the numbers to be high but I didnt expect them to be that high. That’s somewhat staggering.
“I am quite confident that if we interviewed 500 adolescents, 1000, probably 10,000 – the numbers would be essentially the same.”
In recent years a number of small schemes have been set up in some schools in the US to educate young people about violence in relationship.
However, campaigners believe a lot more needs to be done to raise awareness.
Dr Bronwen Collins believes rates of violence are much higher in urban areas with higher levels of poverty.
She claims one of the main problems is that many teenagers, like Gabrielle, suffer abuse and don’t realise something is wrong with their relationship.
“To know it’s so common is distressing. We need to do a better job of educating young people about what a healthy relationship really looks like.”
Posted in 
Tags: 