A new report has found that nearly one in seven teenage boys think it is OK to make a girl have sex with them, if she has been flirting with them.

The study into the impact of violence on young people has prompted calls for violence prevention programs in schools.

The report called An Assault on our Future was commissioned by the White Ribbon Foundation, a body that campaigns on the issue of violence against women.

The report's co-author, Dr Michael Flood, says among the most worrying findings was that one in three young people had witnessed their fathers being violent towards their mothers.

"What was also significant was that large numbers particularly of girls and young women were being subjected to sexual violence of unwanted sex in their own relationships," he said.

"So for example let's see nearly one in seven boys think it's OK to make a girl have sex with you if she's flirting."

White Ribbon Foundation executive director Isabel McCrea said the research also exposed the tendency of experiences with violence to polarise children's opinion of domestic abuse.

"The attitudes that I have described that show that boys and young men, a significant proportion of them have violence supporting attitudes cut across the board," she said.

"But we do know that if you come from a violent home then there are two pathways that you can take. One is that you then think that violence is OK and are more likely to use that later in life.

"But we also know that some boys who come from violent homes then really go on to abhor violence and to be very much against it.

"So there is something happening there in terms of people's ability to deal with it in different ways."

Early intervention

Ms McCrea says this split highlights the need for schools to provide teens with examples of acceptable behaviour.

"I think one of the things that we are most concerned about is that for people who are experiencing violence in the home, it is very important that in some other aspect of their life, they can see a different way of behaving, and they can see some hope and some examples of what respectful relationships look like," she said.

"That is why it is so terribly important that every school is able to run programs that show teenagers the way that they can behave to be happier and to have better relationships and that is what we are calling for."

Dr Flood agrees, saying more Government-funded violence prevention programs are urgently needed to tackle the issue, and should be introduced into schools and universities.

Ms McCrea says the research also shows for children, witnessing domestic violence is as damaging as being the direct target of it.

"In homes where, for example, the male carer is being violent to the mother and the children are aware of that and witness that, it is as damaging as if the children were being directly hit themselves in terms of the impacts on their mental health," she said.

"Well, we are looking at children who have come from violent homes, being less able to perform well at school, being less able to form useful and happy relationships, experiencing higher levels of depression, alcohol and drug abuse later in life," she said.

"All these things are much more risky for children from violent homes. Of course, they are not inevitable."

-Editor's note: This story was amended on December 3, 2008 to acknowledge an error made by the authors of the White Ribbon Foundation report. The original story reported, in part, that "one in every three boys believe it is not a big deal to hit a girl". In fact, the author of the report, Dr Michael Flood, has advised the ABC that this finding was in fact wrong. Dr Flood's team transposed information in compilation of that part of the report. The original report by the National Crime Prevention 2001 study upon which much of the White Ribbon report was is based made no reference to "boys hitting girls" and referred only to "girls hitting boys".

As references to this incorrect information formed a significant part of our online news story, the story has been amended accordingly. Since some of the user comments attached to this story were based on the incorrect information, user comments have been removed from this story.