By Richard Asinof EAST PROVIDENCE – It’s better to safe and
single, than dating and in danger, according to Christie Rizzo,
a child psychologist with the Bradley/Hasbro’s Children’s
Research Center. As many as one in four teens, both male and
female, have been in physically abusive relationships, and two-
thirds have experience some form of sexual coercion, according
to national research. In Rhode Island, in 2011, in a survey of
high school students as part of the statewide Youth Risk
Behavior Study, about 8 percent of all students surveyed said
that they had been hit by a boyfriend or girlfriend in the past
year, and 7 percent reported that they had been raped. Rizzo, an
active researcher on adolescent dating violence, says that many
parents are in the dark about their child's situation because
teens are very good at hiding the signs of abuse. “Depression is
strongly associated with dating violence, so if your teen is in
a relationship and suddenly begins doing poorly in school or is
isolating themselves from