You only get one chance at youth, and events in childhood can set a course for the rest of your life. The preteen and teen years are formative in establishing behavior patterns that continue into and shape adulthood. Just as youth need to learn the foundational skills of reading, writing, and math, children of all ages must learn the building blocks of healthy relationships.

It’s time for middle and high school teachers to stop leaving education about domestic violence to universities. It could be built into the grade-school curriculum and discussed in classes such as health, sociology, civics, and history. Schools could also hold events during Teen Dating Violence, Domestic Violence, and Sexual Violence Awareness Months.

Teaching children about intimate partner violence isn’t only the job of schools. I encourage parents, guardians, and even older siblings to talk with children about boundaries and how to articulate these clearly and assertively. For older teenagers, this might involve discussing their power to define their own boundaries around sex and intimacy. Addressing the broader societal problem of domestic violence requires policy and funding changes. But if you want to take action on this issue yourself, begin having conversations about healthy and unhealthy relationships with the children in your life.

As a current employee of the LA County Department of Public Health, I want to remind everyone that domestic violence is a public health issue. Whether it’s infectious disease, environmental factors, or domestic violence, the goal of public health promotion is to prevent harm before it occurs. I believe that education about healthy relationships at a young age is crucial to decreasing rates of domestic violence and getting us one step closer to a violence-free world.

Looking back, the intervention I needed most as a teenager wasn’t for an adult to step in and stop my boyfriend’s abuse after it had already escalated. I needed help before that. If a parent or other trusted adult had talked with me earlier about what healthy relationships look like and how to identify abuse, I may never have dated him in the first place.

Read the full article about teen dating violence by Angela Kim at YES! Magazine.