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Evidence Base

Connecting online and offline contexts and risks. STIR Research Report

Keywords

Teenagers Intimate Relationships Interpersonal Violence and Abuse intimate partner violence and abuse Victimisation and Instigation gender-based violence surveillance online prevention

Publication details

Issued: 2015
Language: English
Editors:
Authors: Safeguarding Teenage Intimate Relationships project
Type: Report and working paper
Publisher: Safeguarding Teenage Intimate Relationships (STIR)
Topics: Risks and harms; Wellbeing; Online safety and policy regulation
Sample: A school-based confidential survey of approximately 4,500 young people aged 14-17 year-olds was completed in 45 schools. Semi-structured interviews with 100 young people, using an interview schedule and vignettes were completed
Implications For Parents About: Parenting guidance / support ; Parental practices / parental mediation
Implications For Educators About: Other
Implications For Policy Makers About: Other
Other PolicyMaker Implication: MS governments should clarify and publicise existing law that can be used to protect young people from IPVA

Abstract

The project’s overall aim was to contribute to: 1. raising awareness through the provision of robust evidence; 2. enabling young people’s experiences and views to inform policy and practice; 3. enhancing the development of appropriate prevention and intervention programmes; 4. providing a resource which young people can access directly. The specific research objectives were to: 1) Map relevant policy, practice and knowledge on IPVA in young people’s relationships within each partner country and the degree to which these address the association between new technologies and IPVA in young people’s relationships. 2) Create the first European comparative evidence-base on the incidence, impact, and the risk and protective factors associated with online and offline IPVA in young people’s relationships. 3) Include young people’s IPVA experiences and views, including the role of new technologies, to enhance and inform the development of European prevention and intervention responses. 4) Develop a virtual resource in each partner language directly accessible through the STIR website and also via a downloadable app. The resource was developed with young people for young people and provides awareness raising, research findings and signposts for appropriate sources of help in each country. A school based confidential survey of approximately 4,500 young people aged 14 17 year olds was completed in 45 schools. Semi-structured interviews with 100 young people, using an interview schedule and vignettes were completed.

Outcome

A quarter of the young people surveyed had not talked to anyone about the IPVA they had experienced in their intimate relationships. Most young people talked to peers rather than adults about their experiences. Young people’s view of IPVA as a private matter, a lack of trust in others and the desire to protect the perpetrator or the relationship were all barriers to seeking help. They tended to see themselves and their peers as responsible for preventing it. Most young people participating in the study were positive about the value of prevention work in relation to IPVA. School and home were identified as the most important settings for its prevention. Young people in four countries had sent sexual images of themselves and in the England in particular this was perceived as normal behaviour. This view was shared to some extent by interviewees from all five countries. Most young people had talked to a close friend about such incidents, but had not contacted the police due to fear of their parents’ reactions. Young female participants sometimes were forced to send more explicit sexual images against their wishes. The vast majority of young people interviewed in all five countries had experienced behaviours that can be described as emotionally abusive. Emotional violence included: deceit; derogatory comments; being humiliated; betraying privacy; violent outbursts; and extremes of rejection followed by devotion. Online control and surveillance and offline abuse were closely related. Using social networking as a means of perpetrating abuse intensified the impact. In Bulgaria, most young people suggested that it was young people themselves who should prevent IPVA happening. In Bulgaria and Italy, a few young people also described perpetrating physical violence.

Related studies

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