The boy who broke your teenage heart, the girl who drove you to drink or poetry - did it ever occur to you that they might have abused you? New approaches to preventing inter-parental conflict and family violence suggest they might.

Work by Vangie Foshee, which contrasts with the approaches to family violence represented by the Duluth model, was presented at last week's annual conference in Washington DC of the US Society for Prevention Research.

Foshee has focused on the abuse encountered during an adolescent’s first romantic relationships. Her studies show that about 12 per cent of adolescents are likely to say they have been physically maltreated during a date in the last 18 months.

Nearly 30 per cent disclose psychological abuse. The consequences of fights in these early relationships are associated with an increased risk of depression, drug, alcohol or substance misuse and poor sexual health.

Hitting a date in adolescence is strongly linked with risks of later domestic violence. So far there has been little investment in finding out how to stop violence in relationships before it starts. Foshee found that of the 56 reported prevention programs in this area, only 13 had been evaluated and just six had been subjected to a randomized controlled trial.