By the time they turn 20 years old, nearly a quarter (24%) of adolescent girls who have been in a relationship will have experienced physical or sexual violence from their intimate partner, according to a report from the World Health Organization (WHO) published Monday found.

Even though the prevalence of violence among teenagers largely parallels that of women overall, minors are more affected because of their economic dependence and the devastating effect it has on their health and life prospects.

“Intimate partner violence is starting alarmingly early for millions of young women around the world,” said Dr Pascale Allotey, Director of WHO’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research Department in a press release.

She highlighted the “profound and lasting harms” such experiences have and called for more health focus on prevention and targeted support for girls.

Using  WHO’s Global database on prevalence of violence against women, the report analyzes data over the last two decades from 161 countries on violence against adolescent girls aged 15-19 years old.

The analysis focuses on sexual and physical violence; psychological violence was excluded due to a lack of commonly agreed on comparison measures.

Long-lasting consequences of partner violence 

Health, educational achievement, future relationships, and the lifelong prospects of young people overall are all affected by intimate partner violence. 

Such violence also has direct effects on physical and mental health, heightening the risk of depression and anxiety disorders, but also injuries, unplanned pregnancies, and sexually transmitted infections.

According to the WHO, 42% of women aged 15-49 who experienced intimate partner violence report an injury as its consequence. 

Intimate partner violence also raises the risk of a miscarriage (16% more likely) or a pre-term birth (41% more likely). Victims were also nearly three times as likely to be infected with a sexually transmitted disease, in comparison to other girls and young women.

Power imbalances drive partner violence

There are considerable regional differences in the prevalence of intimate partner violence, ranging from 47% in Oceania and 40% in Sub-Saharan Africa to 10% and 11% in Central Europe and Central Asia respectively.

It is generally more common in lower-income countries where women have less power than male partners.

A lower proportion of girls enrolled in secondary school, weaker legal property ownership and inheritance rights, and child marriage all conspire to foster conditions of economic dependency and social isolation that increase the risks of abuse in intimate relationships, the research found.

The keys to improving the situation are “ensuring secondary education for all girls, securing gender-equal property rights and ending harmful practices such as child marriage, which are often underpinned by the same inequitable gender norms that perpetuate violence against women and girls,” said the report’s author, Dr Lynnmarie Sardinha.

Education, legal, and economic empowerment

Currently, no country is on track to achieve the target of eliminating violence against women and girls by 2030, as countries pledged to do under Target 5.2.1 of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

The study highlights the urgent need to strengthen early prevention measures and support services made especially for adolescents. Actions to advance women’s and girls’ agency and rights are another important measure.

Effective interventions can include school programmes that educate all students on healthy relationships and violence prevention, but also more general legal protections and economic empowerment.

Image Credits: USAID, WHO.