Lee and other former victims are helping launch the first nationwide hotline specifically designed to combat the widespread problem of teen dating violence.

It will be run by the National Domestic Violence Hotline (www.ndvh.org), which mostly serves adults with its current operations. Calls to the new line will be answered by teens, plus other young adults, in the belief that young abuse victims would be more comfortable confiding in someone their own age.

"I wrestled over telling people what was happening to me because I was ashamed," said Lee, 19, who is now a freshman in Missouri State University's prenursing program in her hometown of Springfield, Mo.

"I was in denial — I blamed myself," she said. "I wished there'd been somewhere to turn besides my family or friends — a hotline with someone I didn't know but who understood."

Sheryl Cates, executive director of the National Domestic Violence Hotline, said the existing line gets about 17,000 calls a month from across the country. About 10 percent are from teens, mostly concerned with dating violence.

When fully functioning early next year, the new hotline will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Teens will field calls from noon to 2 a.m., and young adults 18 to 24 will work overnight to serve college-age callers.

Cates anticipates roughly 1,000 calls a month to the new line. Her center in Austin, Texas, will be recruiting dozens of new staff members — some volunteer, some paid — to handle the calls after undergoing about 60 hours of training.

One prerequisite is patience: Cates said calls from teens to the existing hotline average more than 20 minutes in length, twice that of adult calls.

Cates said there are only a few regional hotlines specializing in coping with teen dating violence. The head of a nonprofit running one such line welcomed the prospect of a national service.

"Absolutely, it's needed," said Stephanie Flaherty of the battered-women's support group DOVE in Quincy, Mass. "A lot of teens want to talk about what's happening to them, but they're afraid of it getting back to their parents."

In Texas, half of all teenagers and young adults have experienced dating violence, either as target or abuser, according to a survey released in August by the state attorney general.

A recent national survey by Teenage Research Unlimited found that one-third of teen girls in a dating relationship have feared for their physical safety.

Jill Murray, a psychotherapist from Laguna Niguel, Calif., who has written about dating violence, said the problem is worsening, in part because of coarse youth culture. She also described a new form of dating abuse, using cellphones.

"You've got boyfriends sending scary and demeaning text messages, sometimes in the middle of the night," she said. "The girl must sleep with her cellphone on vibrate, so her parents don't hear it, and she must answer his message or face bad consequences."

"Maybe they call to find out how to make him change, but they don't want to get him in trouble," Murray said. "The hotline is a perfect anonymous way to seek help."

The National Domestic Violence Hotline operates with public and private funds. Clothing maker Liz Claiborne Inc. has pledged $1 million over several years to launch the teen hotline.

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