Dating violence in the city of Manaus/Amazonas/Brazil

The research investigated, in the year of 2007, the violence in affective-sexual relationships of adolescents in public and private high-schools in Manaus. Objectives: to analyze the prevalence of this violence and its social representations from a gender perspective; to analyze the relationship between violence in dating relationships and violence in the family, between pairs, and in the community. Methods: epidemiological investigation with 474 adolescents between 15 and 19 years-old. It was made the description of the absolute and relative frequency and of the intersection of variables. Six focus groups and six individual interviews with boys and girls were conducted, totalizing 51 adolescents. Content Analysis was adopted to analyze the qualitative data. Results: the prevalence of violence in affective relationships between young couples is high; almost nine out of ten young people practice and suffer many forms of violence in the coexistence with his/her partner. Girls report to practice and suffer more violence than boys, perpetrating more physical violence (39,2%), threats (43,5%) and verbal violence (89,7%). Boys report to commit more sexual violence (54,2%). Regarding the suffered violence, girls report to suffer more verbal violence (88,8%), sexual violence (56,2%) and threats(33,7%). Boys report to suffer more physical violence (25,8%) and relational violence (30,3%). It was found a direct association between having been a victim of verbal aggression in previous relationships and suffering/practicing violence in the current relationship. The results indicated the need of attention and intervention from the school, family, health professionals, and the media. They can contribute to prevent violent relationships between young couples. In 2008 the research is being conducted in other nine Brazilian capitals.