Nearly one in 10 high school students said they had been physically hurt by a boyfriend or girlfriend. - Mitchell Tsai

Now a diverse group that includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and federal lawmakers is trying to forestall dating violence by addressing even younger students: middle schoolers... Some seventh graders have already experienced physical and emotional harm while dating. - Mitchell Tsai

Jadn Soper, 14, brushed aside her electric pink hair as she drew, remarking that most eighth graders know couples who are in demeaning relationships. “You can tell the way a girl’s mood changes when she’s with that person,” she said. “The boy was funny and charming until he reels you in, and then he’s demanding and has to have it his way.” - Mitchell Tsai

“Most young people have a sense of what’s abusive,” she said, “but they don’t know what a healthy relationship means.” - Mitchell Tsai

A 2010 study of 1,430 seventh graders in eight middle schools in three cities...3/4 of students had already had a boyfriend or girlfriend. 1/3 said they had been victims of psychological dating violence; nearly 1/6 said they had experienced physical dating violence. Almost half said they had been touched in an unwanted sexual way or had been the target of sexual slurs. - Mitchell Tsai