Preventing Teen Dating Violence: A Comprehensive Proactive Population Health Framework

The traditional landscape of public health and behavioral health has long been defined by its responsiveness to crisis. When an adolescent experiences physical or sexual harm within a dating relationship, the machinery of the social service and healthcare sectors activates to provide triage, treatment, and recovery. While these services are indispensable for those already harmed, they represent the final stage of a systemic failure to intervene before the onset of violence. Teen dating violence (TDV), a significant public health issue affecting millions of young people annually, is an adverse childhood experience (ACE) with lifelong implications for health, economic opportunity, and overall wellbeing (Basile et al., 2020). To address this challenge, a fundamental shift is required: emphasizing resources not just on reactive, deficit-based models but on proactive, preventive, and systemic approaches grounded in population health informatics and the principles of positive psychology (Wilches, 2022).