College students often miss signs of abusive relationships

This study was performed in 2011 by Knowledge Networks on behalf of women's fashion company Liz Claiborne, Inc.

The statistics on physical abuse on campus only tell portion of the story, though.

Almost half -- 43 percent -- of college women reported experiencing violent and abusive dating behaviors in general. Of this 43 percent, around half of the abuse involved physical contact, while much of the rest was emotional, verbal, and technological abuse.

When students don't know what to look for, it can cause problems for those seeking to fight the dating abuse culture on campus.

Whitley Grant is project coordinator for Resources, Intervention, Service and Education, an anti-intimate partner violence and sexual violence resource on Shaw University's campus. Grant said a major challenge in her efforts is that many students don’t recognize abusive behavior when they see it.

"In my work, what is most important right now on campuses is definitely making clear to students what a healthy relationship actually looks like," Grant said. "Secondly, many students have to be provided the resources to get out of unhealthy relationships."

In the modern social media age, a large percentage of social interactions do not involve face-to-face presence. In this context, emotional abuse can include cyber harassment and cyber stalking, or using intimate photographs against former partners. Digital dating abuse can be an especially powerful tool of emotional abuse because the abuser can use it to embarrass, control, shame, and intimidate victims.

Grant states that once it becomes clear that emotional abuse is happening, whether digitally or face-to-face, negative perceptions of people who use campus resources as "weak" make it difficult to convince victims to seek help for themselves or recommend it to others.

"Because there is a stigma around mental health issues, sometimes the fact that the resources are in the mental health center can discourage people from walking in," Grant said. "The stigma prevents many victims from sitting down with those who can help."