by Leslie Trotter

Created on: October 19, 2009   Last Updated: October 20, 2009

There can be many clues that your teen is in an abusive relationship. A major sign is if she has unexplained bruises, busted lips or black eyes. She's making excuses, saying she was in a fight at school. However, no one from your child's school has called to tell you she had been in a fight or is suspended for it.

If your daughter is secretive and stays secluded away from the family, she's quiet and seems depressed all the time. There is a reason and it should be investigated. In many cases like this, your child is ashamed and fearful of the family finding out what is going on so she hides away within herself or her bedroom.

Your daughter seems to carry her cell phone with her everywhere she goes and answers it on the first ring each time, she comes home from school and has to quickly call her boyfriend before she does anything else. This is a sign that her boyfriend is controlling her home life as well.

Your daughter has become obsessed with losing weight and dressing differently than she normally does and the reason could be because her boyfriend is telling her she is too fat and she needs to dress the way he wants her to dress. She doesn't hang out with her friends like she used to because either she's told by her boyfriend not to or she is ashamed of her friends finding out that she's being abused by her boyfriend. And if her friends has known about the abuse and they have confronted her or showed any concern, she stops having anything to do with them.

The only person she converses with is her abusive boyfriend. If your daughter gives her boyfriend money or buys him things, her allowance or salary is dwindling because her boyfriend demands she gives him most or all of it. That is a sign she's in an abusive relationship.

If you have set a curfew for your children to be home at a certain time. But, your daughter comes into the house way after curfew hours. Her boyfriend is the one making up his own curfew for her. He's undermining his girlfriend and her family so that he has total control of your daughter. Even sex becomes a part of her boyfriends way of controlling her.

Abusive boyfriends make a girls life very miserable and suicide becomes an issue for her and her family. If your daughter has attempted suicide or has talked about it. Get help for her immediately, and do everything within your power to keep her boyfriend away from her once you find out he's the culprit in her suicidal attempts. Girls are not the only ones who can be in an abusive relationship. Nevertheless, don't forget to take into consideration that your son too can be in an abusive relationship and you should seek help for him as well.

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