February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, dedicated to raising awareness of teen dating violence and helping youth establish healthy relationships.
Teen dating violence is aggressive, threatening, and/or manipulative behaviour from a partner in a romantic or sexual relationship, and is more prevalent in Canada than many expect. 40% of grade 10 girls and 32% of grade 10 boys report being victimized in their dating relationships. 34% of girls in grade 10 and 19% of boys in grade 9 report emotional dating violence victimization, 20% of girls and 17% of boys report being cyber-victimized by their dating partner (source: The Health of Canadian Youth: Findings from the health behaviour in school-aged children study).