Healthy Young Adult Relationships (HYAR) - Project

Lead Research Organisation: University of Ulster
Department Name: Sch of Psychology

Abstract

In the UK, 2.3 million people reported experiencing domestic-abuse during 2020, the majority due to intimate partner violence. Of these, 14% were female and 5.3% male victims aged between 16-19-years. The Word Health Organisation have estimated that 1 in 4 females between the ages of 15-19 years have already been subjected to some form of intimate partner violence in their lifetime. Less is known about young males' experiences, with even further knowledge gaps regarding LGBTQ+ young people.



The impact of intimate partner violence experiences for young people is similar to that experienced by adults. These include the development of adverse mental health outcomes including post traumatic stress, anxiety and depression. The experience of intimate partner violence will also influence young people's ability to engage with education as well as affect their relationships with family and friends.



Coercive control is a form of intimate partner violence characterised by a pattern of behaviour which aims to intimidate, belittle, manipulate and control a person. Our previous research has found that intimate partner violence victims perceive coercive control to be one of the worst types of abuse to experience and the most difficult type to report. Such abuse is not limited to adult intimate relationships. There is increasing evidence of such behaviours in young peoples' relationships.



Knowledge and understanding of healthy intimate relationships is important to identify when a partner is being abusive, for help-seeking and to navigate support services. However, effective education for young people on healthy intimate relationships is lacking in the UK, even though relationships and sexuality education can contribute to long-term health improvements, reduce intimate partner violence, reduce discrimination, and increase gender equitable norms. During 2020 we completed a survey with over 2000 young people across Northern Ireland aged 16 years exploring their knowledge and understanding of Coercive Control. Only 16% of respondents had heard of the term and understood its meaning.





Relationship education can support the understanding and identification of partner abuse, particularly in the absence of physical forms of violence, but this must reflect young people's existing needs and personal differences (e.g. sexual orientation, gender identity). Such education has the potential to not only reduce risk of victimisation (including associated physical and psychological harm), but also enhance resource, resilience and quality of young peoples existing relationships. While intimate partner violence prevention programmes, delivered as part of relationships and sexuality education programmes, are available within some UK school settings, delivery is not consistent, and evidence of programme effectiveness limited. However, elements of relationships and sexuality education are generally provided by a range of people within the wider-community. Community based delivery methods provided by youth focused professionals offer an important partnership opportunity in meeting the needs of relationships and sexuality education curriculum within a flexible format of delivery.

The current project responds to this public health challenge and will address the needs of young people aged 16-19-years, their parents, and youth-providers with regards to education about healthy young adult relationships, including intimate partner violence. We will use an informal-education and community-based approach to do this. This will involve speaking with young people, parents guardians and other stakeholders about preferred modes of educational delivery regarding young people interpersonal relationships. We will then use this information to develop a prototype intervention, informed by young people, focused on Healthy Young Adult Relationships (HYAR).

Technical Summary

The Word Health Organisation estimated that 1 in 4 females aged between 15-19 years have already been subjected to some form of intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetime; less is known about young males' experiences, with even further knowledge gaps regarding LGBTQ+ young people.



IPV prevention programmes are available within some UK school settings, although delivery is not consistent, and evidence of programme effectiveness limited. This is in part due to schools themselves lacking the expertise and confidence to deliver relationship and sexuality education (RSE) programmes which address sensitive topics such as IPV. Further, while parents/guardians, peers and communities are acknowledged as important stakeholders for IPV intervention, their inclusion in RSE programmes is somewhat piecemeal.



The proposed project responds to this public health challenge and will address the needs of young people (YP) aged 16-19-years, their parents, and youth-providers with regards to education about healthy young adult relationships including IPV. It will use an informal-education and community-based approach. This is aligned with UNESCO international technical guidance on sexuality-education which forms part of the 2030 global education agenda and places stakeholder involvement at the forefront of planning RSE. Using qualitative-methods and co-research partnering with YP, the project aims to:

identify characteristics and components of a user-informed intervention designed to increase knowledge and skills about healthy and unhealthy relationship practices;

Identify preferred modes of educational delivery regarding YP's interpersonal relationships;

Identify differing ways of understanding how to report, monitor, and respond to IPV within YP relationships which are effective for the entire community; and

Work with experts and YP to co-create a prototype intervention to promote healthy relationships and reduce risk of IPV and associated negative outcomes.

Publications

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Title Young co-researchers' self-portraits 
Description Our research team asked young co-researchers to draw a picture of how they see themselves, what they wish to achieve with their participation in HYAR and how they wish to add to the project. This ensured that they would feel a sense of community and accountability towards HYAR. 
Type Of Art Image 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact Apart from giving young people a sense of community or being part of something bigger (i.e., sex education reform), the activity offered a greater opportunity for inclusion. Some of the young people identified as non-binary or transgender and therefore 'group pictures' for future presentations (i.e. introducing the team), would not reflect how they see themselves nor how they wished the world would see them. The self portrait allowed young people to introduce themselves within the HYAR project in whatever way best reflected them. 
 
Title Participatory Theme Elicitation as data triangulation method 
Description Participatory Theme Elicitation (PTE) is a novel method of analysing data, using participant feedback and a mixed qualitative-quantitative methodology. It has traditionally been used to understand and interpret data, fully involving research participants; however, our team decided to use this method as a way of triangulating the data to ensure that we understood what young people have said to us during the focus groups. Young people have raised a concern that young adult relationships are often interpreted through adults' perspective; we wanted to not only involve our young co-researchers in the process of analysing the data but also to hear their voices as representation of all young people's voices in Northern Ireland, including those we have interviewed. First, we provided a copy of the transcripts to two researchers who were not involved in conducting the focus groups to pre-select quotes for young people to sort through as part of the PTE process to ensure that the data analysis is as objective as possible. We held a full day of training for young people to be able to conduct PTE; we then provided young people with pre-selected quotes and allowed them to fully immerse themselves in the data. Young co-researchers grouped the quotes based on their similarity and began to see patterns without our researchers' input. We gathered their opinions and their individual and collective interpretations of the data in a discussion to which we also invited Dr Paul Best, the creator of PTE. We inputted the data (i.e., the quotes and themes they generated) into PTE software and produced a network map that we discussed in real time with the group to ensure acceptability of findings. Essentially, the network diagram grouped themes together based on how many young co-researchers selected the same exact quotes and placed them in the same pile together. During the discussion, where young people clarified their interpretations of data among themselves and with our researchers, we found that their themes align with the themes of our research team. We subsequently utilised these results to confirm our own interpretation of the focus group data. 
Type Of Material Data analysis technique 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The impact includes accuracy of interpreting results from the focus groups with young people; objectivity guaranteed in generating results and findings of the study; young people's participation in novel methodology and creating relevant and timely educational intervention; future publications and collaborations across institutions. 
 
Description Women's Aid Federation Northern Ireland 
Organisation Women's Aid
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Dr Susan Lagdon (HYAR PI) organized and facilitated the event in partnership with colleagues across her University and Women's Aid NI. HYAR PRDA, Dr Lucia Klenkacova also supported facilitation on the day of the event.
Collaborator Contribution Women's Aid Federation are an official HYAR project partner, specifically they form part of the Research Oversight Group. Given the ongoing community based work of the both the HYAR project and Women's Aid Federation NI SAY project - a further joint community collaboration addressing gender equality and education was progressed during November 2023. Colleagues at Ulster University and members of the HYAR Team, in conjunction with Women's Aid, hosted the WOW (Women of the World) Bus and facilitated multiple gender empowered workshops for approximately 40 young women (age 12 - 17 years) from local Community Youth Groups in Northern Ireland. Every year, the WOW Girls' Festival is a force for change across society in how it sees girls, their potential and the opportunities it offers for their future, both in the UK and overseas, working with global partners. Workshops were held on the WOW bus as well as the team facilitating a series of sessions (film, arts, interactive and discussion based) that would enable the young women the opportunities to speak out about gender-based inequalities and to challenge those structures that enable this.
Impact This was a multidisciplinary collaboration with academics from the HYAR Team (Psychology), Youth Work and Film and Media at Ulster University as well as working with our community based partner, Women's Aid Federation NI.
Start Year 2023
 
Title HYAR educational intervention for young people and their parents 
Description The initial funding application included a logic model and framework of understanding for the proposed HYAR intervention. This included 4 core module learning components which would address (1) Education about healthy and unhealthy relationships and impacts of IPV, (2) Awareness of support sources/ services, (3) Peer communication, (4) Parent/ carer and young person communication. Following the completion of interviews and focus groups which included young people (n=30), adult allies (n=8) and youth work professionals (n=11), it became clear that we had not included an important first step in relationship education, which was identified by young people themselves; this component is 'Relationship with Self', which young people have identified as the cornerstone of effective healthy relationship education. The team are currently refining the initial model and further scoping weekly session content for the proposed intervention. This will be presented to our young co-researchers during late March and to our Research Oversight Group for further feedback and agreement. 
Type Preventative Intervention - Behavioural risk modification
Current Stage Of Development Initial development
Year Development Stage Completed 2024
Development Status Under active development/distribution
Impact Our Research Oversight Group meetings have been used as opportunities to update and feedback to key stakeholders in Northern Ireland linked to the project. As the project has progressed, so too has awareness of the work and potential future contributions. We have had requests to meet and discuss our work with the Education Authority as well as the Executive Office Violence Against Women and Girls Strategic Framework team, who are interested in further development of the proposed intervention. 
 
Description MADE For HYAR Methods, Awareness and Diversity Education Fundamentals of the Healthy Young Adult Relationships Project 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact During July 2023 the HYAR Team hosted THE MADE for HYAR (Methods, Awareness and Diversity Education Fundamentals of the Healthy Young Adult Relationships Project) Training day for the projects young coresearchers, members of the projects research oversight group (ROG) and postdoctoral and PhD researchers. The training was delivered by the PI, Dr Susan Lagdon and specialist members of the HYAR ROG. The focus of the training was to ensure that young people who hold a role as co-researchers, as well as other involved members of the the project, were equipped with the foundational knowledge to support the project and remit of their roles in the project. Dr Lagdon work with Ulster University to ensure that attendance was certified and young people also received a formal welcome to the team with University branded clothing and stationery.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation at the Forensic Managed Care Network Symposium - Breaking the Link Between Childhood Trauma and Criminal Justice System 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Dr Susan Lagdon delivered a presentation focused on the HYAR project methods and intended outcomes. Specifically, plans to develop an intervention that will educate young people about healthy and unhealthy behaviours in relationships.

The key learning objective was to share the potential implications of social support and education programmes in reducing risk of victimization and perpetration.

There was significant interest in the project with further invitations to speak with specific groups linked with Justice and Public Health.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023