This study by Silverman and colleagues (2001) looked at how dating violence within adolescent relationships was associated with negative consequences such as substance use, unhealthy weight control, sexual risk behavior, pregnancy and suicidality. This study claims there is a lack of knowledge regarding the prevalence and the associated health risks of physical and sexual dating violence against adolescent girls (Silverman, Raj, Mucci & Hathaway, 2001). It furthers previous representative studies by providing a better assessment of dating violence and using a prolonged reporting period (Silverman et. al., 2001). Although the article did state what was going to be presented in its analysis, there was a poor description as to what the researcher's suspected hypothesis will be. Silverman and colleagues made no clear indication as to what the research question was, they instead stated they would provide prevalence rates, demographic characteristics of teens at risk and assess dating violence history as a predictor of health risks for adolescents (Silverman et. al., 2001).
This study was based on the results of previous Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) conducted in 1997 and 1999, the former consisting of 1977 female participants and the latter including 2186 (Silverman at. al., 2001). Although the samples were quite large and it is likely the study could generate significant results, this study was based off of the YRBS presented to high school girls attending school in Massachusetts only. Therefore, it would be difficult to generalize results, and thus, has low population validity. Following, Silverman and colleagues used correlation research which was an appropriate measure for this line of investigation, but whether or not data is reliable and can be replicated is brought into question. It is difficult to say how results which individuals gave regarding dating violence incidents and the risk factors associated with it will remain consistent over time.
