A Youth Endowment Fund survey that has revealed high rates of domestic abuse among teenagers is “deeply alarming”, Refuge says.
The UK’s largest specialist domestic abuse organisation said the survey data, which revealed two in five teens in relationships have experienced emotional or physical relationship abuse, is “sadly not surprising”.
“At Refuge, our frontline services see every day how domestic abuse impacts the lives of young people, often with devastating consequences for their long-term mental health and wellbeing,” said Ellie Butt, head of policy and public affairs at Refuge.
“It is horrific that as many as two in five teenagers in relationships report experiencing emotional or physical abuse, including control, pressure or violence. Romantic relationships should be a safe place where young people can flourish as individuals and have healthy formative experiences of intimacy. Instead, far too many early relationships are marked by abuse.”
For the 36% of young people surveyed who reported forms of emotional abuse, behaviours ranged from partners checking their phone or monitoring their location to criticism of their body or appearance.
What was even more concerning, the Youth Endowment Fund said in its report, was the 15% of teens who said they’d been subjected to physical or sexual abuse – including being forced or pressured into sex, physically hurt or having explicit images of them shared online.
Earlier this year, Refuge reported a concerning rise in domestic abuse among young women and girls aged 16–25, particularly psychological abuse, coercive control and physical violence.
“Coercive control is increasingly being carried out through technology,” Butt said. Teenagers in the Youth Endowment Fund reported high rates of emotional and tech-facilitated abuse, with a fifth (19%) saying partners check their phones or social media and 14% reporting partners monitor their location.
“These findings mirror the growing but often hidden crisis of tech-facilitated abuse we are seeing on the frontline,” Butt added.
“Referrals to Refuge’s Technology-Facilitated Abuse and Economic Empowerment Team alone rose by 62% in the first nine months of 2025 compared with the same period last year.
“Concerningly, a UK-wide poll conducted by Refuge in March revealed that young people are less likely to spot the signs of abuse than other age groups, meaning abuse can go unseen and unreported. Tech-facilitated abuse is especially likely to go unnoticed by young people, amid the normalisation of behaviours such as location tracking and demands to see a partner’s phone.
“We urgently need the Government’s upcoming VAWG strategy to include investment in high-quality, trauma-informed sex and relationships education, along with policy measures to tackle tech-facilitated abuse. This must be backed by sustainable funding for the VAWG sector and for specialist services like Refuge that provide lifesaving support to survivors.”
Youth Endowment Fund: Children, violence and vulnerability 2025
