Maximising ‘healthy relationships’ education with adolescents

1. REACH, TEACH & SUPPORT Sexual Health Promotion Conference Tuesday 24th August 2010 Kylie Murphy Safe in Romantic Relationships Project RMIT University, Bundoora Maximising ‘healthy relationships’ education with adolescents

2. What we know about Healthy Relationships Education What we know about Abusive Relationships: A model for responding preventatively Findings of a recent program trial Opportunities for integration? Session overview

3. Little is known about what constitutes effective “healthy relationships” education because very little program evaluation has occurred in this area But preventative education with young people is not new; program evaluation in other areas tells us… What do we know?

4. Effective programs Unproven programs • Based on sound theory • Clear attitudinal and behavioural objectives • Build skills for responding to real-life situations • Recognise participants’ existing strengths and insights • Empowerment-oriented • Facilitate interaction and discussion closely related to program objectives • Evaluation is built-in and continual • Weak theoretical rationale • Only attitudinal or awareness-raising objectives • Presume only weaknesses and deficits in participants • Risk-focussed, scaremongering • Didactic – lecture-style delivery • Poorly structured – discussion goes wherever the facilitator or participants feel like going • Little thought given to evaluation What works best?

5. What do we know about Abusive Relationships?

6. Dictum • An authoritative or popular statement Evidence • Facts or observations that support a claim • Can be collected and viewed selectively Ideology • A set of ideas and principles that come to have a strong influence dictum, evidence & Ideology

7. There are many types of abusive relationship • Uni-directional, bi-directional, symmetrical • Same-sex and heterosexual relationships • Common factor is harm-causing interactions • Most harmful when these interactions are chronic and/or escalatory • Abusive interactions can cause different types of harm… abusive relationships

8. Typesof harm • Social harms • Emotional harms • Physical harms • Physical abuse is not necessarily more harmful than other forms of abuse • Abusive interactions tendto cause greaterharm for girls and women than for boys and men • Abusive interactions also harm the development of children who grow up in abusive environments considering harm

9. No factor or set of factors has been found to ‘cause’ a relationship to become harmful • But many ‘risk factors’ increase the odds of serious harm occurring in a relationship: • Past relational experiences • Emotional deficits • Learned behaviours • Beliefs and attitudes • Situational factors What causes relationship abuse?

10. Perpetration factors increase the odds of behaving abusively with a partner • Victimisation factors increase the odds of being abused by a partner • The same risk factors for perpetration apply to males and females • Many perpetration risk factors are also victimisation risk factors relationship abuse Risk factors

11. The strongestpredictors of serious harm occurring in a relationship are • The existence of risk factors in bothpartners • Accommodation of abusive behaviours by one or both partners leading to entrenched abuse and/or • Reciprocity of abusive behaviourleading to harmful escalations When is the risk greatest?

12. A model for understanding and Preventing Relationship abuse

13. Based on contemporary researchwith young people in western cultures • Concerned with the experiences and behaviours of individuals in relationships • Does not deal with harassment, assaults or other forms of abuse that occur outside of relationships “Dyadic slippery slope” model

14. Background Risk Factors Attachment Experiences, Abuse, Neglect, Community & Family Violence, Popular Media Personal ‘Slippery Slope’ Vulnerability Factors Behavioural Repertoire & Conditioning Attitudes & Beliefs Emotional & Relational factors Exposure to partner’s Warning-Sign Behaviours (WSB) Accommodation and/or Aggressionresponses feed Anger, Overdependence, and/orPower imbalance Repeated exposure or intensification... Serious Social, Emotional, and/or Physicalharms

15. Dominance-Seeking – “Bossiness” Possessiveness – “Ownership” Denigration – “Meanness” Conflict Control Tactics – “Unfair Arguing” Retaliatory responding – “Revenge” Warning sign behaviours (wsbs)

16. There is a role for youth-targeted education to play in • Minimising harmful outcomes in young people’s early relationships and • Reducing family violence in future generations 1. Raisingawareness of how the relationship abuse “slippery slope” works 2. Promotingskills for resisting the “slippery slope” from when the earliest WSBs appear What does this model mean for prevention?

17. Need to address young people’s attitudes and behaviours • Attitudes about WSBs, self-agency, responsibility, etc • Behavioural repertoire for responding to WSBs • Need to take a gender-inclusive approach • Recognising the role of both partners in setting the course of a relationship • Recognising that male and female partners cause harm • Recognising that not all abusive relationships are heterosexual • Itdoes not mean ignoring or denying gender influences Maximising effectiveness

18. Findings of a recent program trial

19. Theory-based: ‘Dyadic slippery slope’ model • Based on clear attitudinal and behavioural objectives • Builds skills for responding to real-life situations • Empowerment-oriented • Recognises existing strengths and insights • Facilitates interaction and discussion related to the program’s objectives • Evaluation is built into the program At this stage, piloted only with girls • Acknowledges girls’ potential for positive self-agency • Respects most girls’ perceptions of self as powerful Program characteristics

20. Five modules • Choosing; Noticing; Responding; Ending; Bouncing Back ‘Noticing’ module • “Slippery Slope” Dynamics: Silence, Overdependence, Anger, Power-Imbalance • Types of Warning Sign Behaviour (WSB): Bossiness, Ownership, Meanness, Unfair Arguing, Revenge ‘Responding’ module • Accepting v Aggressing v Asserting • Likely long-term outcomes of each way of responding to each type of WSB • Observing, scripting and practicing assertive responses to specific WSBs Program Content

21. Increased sensitivity to the risk associated with all types of WSB Increased tendency to propose assertive responses to hypothetical WSB situations Decreased tendency to propose aggressive responses to WSB by a partner Strengthened sense of self-agency Decreased victim blaming Evaluation Findings

22. Fears about encouraging victim blaming Can harness girls’ potential for positive self-agency without contributing to victim blaming Importance of a structural feminist framework Program was effective without focusing on gender-based inequalities, norms, stereotypes, etc. Validity of “the problem is male” claim Many girls’ pre-program responses to WSB were rewarding and/or aggressive depending on the WSB Usefulness of “perpetrator/victim” thinking Perpetrator and victim roles are not well defined in young people’s relationships; need to teach skills for ‘keeping a grip’ in potential slippery slope situations regardless of who initiates WSB Challenges to current ideology

23. Opportunities for integration?

24. Effective learning poorer learning • Cross-disciplinary, deep, question-based, meaningful • Disjointed, short units of study that are perceived to be unrelated to each other Should healthy relationships education and sexuality education be integrated?

25. Are there themes, knowledge or skills common to ‘sexual and reproductive health’ and ‘healthy relationships’ education? • Making no-regret decisions • Achieving “fair control” in relationships • Relationship rights and responsibilities • Others… Or should these subjects be delivered as distinct units?

26. Kylie Murphy Safe in Romantic Relationships project RMIT University, Bundoora safe-relationships@rmit.edu.au Ph. 0468 718 736 Thank you

27. Level 4 (Grade 5/6) • Describe impact of bullying • Accepting others’ viewpoints • Displaying empathy for others’ feelings • Identify and use a range of strategies to manage and resolve conflict Level 5 (Year 7/8) • Demonstrate respect for the individuality of others • Recognise and describe peer influence on their behaviour • Select and use appropriate strategies to manage individual conflict and assist others in resolution processes Level 6 (Year 9/10) • Demonstrate awareness of complex social conventions • Evaluate their own behaviour in relationships • Identify potential conflict and employ strategies to avoid and/or resolve it VELS: Interpersonal Development