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1 in 3 Canadian Youth Face Dating Violence, Doctors Warn
The Canadian Paediatric Society is urging doctors to screen for dating violence at routine checkups after new guidance found a third of Canadian youth have been affected.
One in three Canadian young people have experienced some form of dating violence, from physical and sexual abuse to online harassment and stalking, according to new guidance released Thursday by the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS).
The report targets health-care providers and calls on pediatricians and primary care doctors to screen for abusive relationships during routine medical visits. The CPS defines youth as those in Grade 6 and up - roughly age 11 - the point when dating typically begins.
Social Media Is Making It Worse
Dr. Megan Harrison, chair of the CPS's adolescent health committee, said health-care providers are seeing an increase in dating-related violence, and pointed partly to how teens use technology and social media.
Tracy Vaillancourt, a professor at the University of Ottawa and Canada Research Chair in youth mental health and violence prevention, flagged violent and pornographic content that teens can easily access online as a major contributing factor. "It dehumanizes girls and women," she said, "and it's quite problematic to how they see relationships."
Some Youth Face Greater Risk
While dating violence can affect anyone in a romantic or sexual relationship, the CPS data shows higher rates among cisgender girls and transgender and gender-diverse youth in a national sample of students in Grades 9 and 10.
Dr. Cécile Rousseau, chair of the division of child and adolescent psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal, noted that poverty, marginality, and discrimination also increase vulnerability for some young people. Vaillancourt added that past exposure to harm shapes what someone tolerates in the future. "Sometimes this happens without any explanation," she said, "but there's also evidence to suggest that what you've endured in the past predicts what you're willing to endure in the future."
Kids who are already living with family violence, or who are bullied or socially excluded by peers, are also at higher risk of experiencing violence in romantic relationships.
What Doctors Are Being Asked to Do
The CPS is now recommending that health-care providers bring up healthy relationships at every routine visit with young patients. That means offering privacy during appointments, normalising the conversation so it doesn't feel like a crisis intervention, and connecting youth to community resources when needed.
The guidance is a shift toward making these conversations a standard part of pediatric care rather than something that only comes up when a problem is already visible. Parents and educators are also being encouraged to watch for warning signs and keep lines of communication open.
The Bigger Picture for Canadian Families
Dating violence in adolescence is linked to lasting mental and physical health consequences, according to the CPS report. Early screening and open conversations are the most practical tools available to catch problems before they escalate.
For Canadian parents, the takeaway is straightforward: talk to your kids about what healthy relationships look like, and make sure their doctors are doing the same. If your child's pediatrician hasn't brought it up, you can.