About one in four U.S. teenage girls is involved in some sort of violent behavior at school or at work, according to a federal report.
A survey of more than 33,000 girls between the ages of 12 and 17 found that 26.7 percent had been involved in a serious fight at school or work, a group-against-group fight, or had attacked someone with the intent to harm the person in the previous year, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported last week.
“In the public mind, acts of teenage violence are most commonly associated with boys,” the report says, but “it is clear that the problem is pervasive among girls as well.”
The survey was conducted between 2006 and 2008. Its results are similar to those from a 2002 to 2004 survey conducted by SAMHSA, which is a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
