Healthy Young Adult Relationships (HYAR) - Project

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).

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.