A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology, University of Auckland. Available on short term loan from the University's general library.

This thesis primarily investigates teenagers' experiences of dating violence. Three studies were undertaken with high school students, unified by the goal of informing prevention programmes in high schools. The first study used a questionnaire to gather information from 373 students about their experiences of emotional, physical and/or sexual violence across heterosexual dating, peer and family relationships. The two remaining studies used discourse analytic approach to examine the talk of students. One study used 12 group interviews in which 101 students were invited to talk about their perceptions of dating relationships and the violence that occurred within them. The other study involved analysis of 24 individual interviews with girls, who had themselves been in relationships with boyfriends that involved violence. Although this thesis primarily investigates teenage dating violence, there is some attention paid to dating violence in relation to experiences of family violence. The purpose is to explore the possibility that people who experience violence in one relationship might become victims of violence in other relationships. The author makes a correlation between dating and family violence, and suggests that a strong case exists for some targeted work with teenagers who have grown up witnessing violence.--AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT

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