Lesson 2: Adolescent Relationship Abuse (ARA)

So we're gonna start today by really diving into what adolescent relationship abuse is, and really starting just with an introduction on this topic. So, adolescent relationship abuse, otherwise called teen dating violence, um, unhealthy relationships. There's a couple different ways to describe this. Is one

person using a pattern of methods and tactics to gain and maintain power and control over a dating partner in the context of an adolescent or young adult relationship.

So a few things to mention here. I think it's important that to highlight the word pattern. And so there's lots of different ways that this can manifest. Um, it tends to be a cycle. Um, so sometimes it can be a one-time incident, but not always. It can sometimes be a cycle that gets worse over time. And really fundamentally, there are so many different ways that someone who uses violence in a relationship can perpetrate adolescent relationship abuse.

So people who use violence may use jealousy, social status, mental health, money, and other tactics. It may not be physical violence. There's many different types of adolescent relationship abuse. There can be emotional abuse, which is isolation, humiliation, economic abuse, using someone's money against them or trying to have them.

Stop going to school or quit their job. Um, immigration or related abuse. So this is using someone's immigration status against them. Reproductive coercion, trying to control someone's reproductive health. As you can see that there's many different ways that this can manifest, but really fundamentally, it's rooted in power and control.

So this is the power and control wheel. And so this is developed by the Family Justice Center and it really looks at the different ways that power and control could manifest in the context of an adolescent dating relationship. So you can see here using things like peer pressure, social status, intimidation, threats.

Isolation, and this is not a complete list. There's so many other ways that someone who uses violence in a relationship may try to assert power and control. But these are some examples, particularly in the context of an adolescent or young adult relationship. That's really just important when we're thinking about adolescent relationship abuse, to really think about how it's rooted in power and control.

The other thing that I think is so critical when it comes to adolescent relationship abuse is that survivors belonging to marginalized groups may experience compounding challenges due to intersecting inequities, including being cut off from resources. And so this is a Socioecological model, and I think oftentimes when we think of the Socioecological model.

Um, and we think about intimate partner violence, we really think of it at the relationship level, right? Like this is a, in the context of a relationship, but you

can see or imagine how structural societal inequities may, um, impact survivors of adolescent relationship abuse. And I use the word survivor throughout this presentation to mean someone who's experienced adolescent relationship abuse.

I use it instead of victims to be more strength focused. And so we can imagine how um, a survivor who is an immigrant may experience stressors related to immigration. Um, a survivor living with a disability may experience stressors related to, um, ableism. And so you can imagine how intersecting racism, ableism, xenophobia, language injustice.

May impact survivors. So I'll give you an example of this. If a survivor is an immigrant or a child of immigrants, particularly living in a mixed status, family ho home, or having a mixed status family, a person who uses violence may threaten to call ice on their family or on the on them themselves, a survivor themselves.

If, or the survivor says, I'm gonna leave the relationship. Um, and this is a method of control, so this person using violence is using. Our societal level inequities, right? Our structural inequities rooted in xenophobia to control a, um, a survivor of adolescent relationship abuse. And so I think that's really important when we're thinking about adolescent relationship abuse as a whole.

Um, to really remember, this can be abuse that happens at the societal or structural level as well. And so I'm gonna have a kind of a note here about gender. So we know that violence is gendered, but young people of all genders experience it and also use violence in their relationships. So it's really important to consider context, impact and outcomes.

And one of the things I'll mention is that a lot of the research that has been done has been done in a very gender binary way. But now there is more work looking at the experiences of gender non-binary and transgender young people and research shows that they are more likely to experience adolescent relationship abuse, which is very much rooted in sort of transphobia and homophobia.

And so I think it'll be critical to continue to think about the needs, um. Of, uh, transgender gender non-binary young people. As the research continues to, um, show more about their experiences. And I also wanna pause and say, what is dating? And I actually think this is really important because dating may look like different things to different adolescents.

There may some be some adolescents who may not use the word dating. Sometimes they'll use the word talking to, hanging out with. Um, there may be

adolescents who, um, don't understand the word dating. Um, so I think it's really important to remember that the word dating can mean different things to different people.

And this is a little word cloud. Um, some of the adolescents in our adolescent collaborative were asked the question, what is a healthy relationship? And these are some of the terms that they thought really defined a healthy dating relationship.

person using a pattern of methods and tactics to gain and maintain power and control over a dating partner in the context of an adolescent or young adult relationship.

So a few things to mention here. I think it's important that to highlight the word pattern. And so there's lots of different ways that this can manifest. Um, it tends to be a cycle. Um, so sometimes it can be a one-time incident, but not always. It can sometimes be a cycle that gets worse over time. And really fundamentally, there are so many different ways that someone who uses violence in a relationship can perpetrate adolescent relationship abuse.

So people who use violence may use jealousy, social status, mental health, money, and other tactics. It may not be physical violence. There's many different types of adolescent relationship abuse. There can be emotional abuse, which is isolation, humiliation, economic abuse, using someone's money against them or trying to have them.

Stop going to school or quit their job. Um, immigration or related abuse. So this is using someone's immigration status against them. Reproductive coercion, trying to control someone's reproductive health. As you can see that there's many different ways that this can manifest, but really fundamentally, it's rooted in power and control.

So this is the power and control wheel. And so this is developed by the Family Justice Center and it really looks at the different ways that power and control could manifest in the context of an adolescent dating relationship. So you can see here using things like peer pressure, social status, intimidation, threats.

Isolation, and this is not a complete list. There's so many other ways that someone who uses violence in a relationship may try to assert power and control. But these are some examples, particularly in the context of an adolescent or young adult relationship. That's really just important when we're thinking about adolescent relationship abuse, to really think about how it's rooted in power and control.

The other thing that I think is so critical when it comes to adolescent relationship abuse is that survivors belonging to marginalized groups may experience compounding challenges due to intersecting inequities, including being cut off from resources. And so this is a Socioecological model, and I think oftentimes when we think of the Socioecological model.

Um, and we think about intimate partner violence, we really think of it at the relationship level, right? Like this is a, in the context of a relationship, but you

can see or imagine how structural societal inequities may, um, impact survivors of adolescent relationship abuse. And I use the word survivor throughout this presentation to mean someone who's experienced adolescent relationship abuse.

I use it instead of victims to be more strength focused. And so we can imagine how um, a survivor who is an immigrant may experience stressors related to immigration. Um, a survivor living with a disability may experience stressors related to, um, ableism. And so you can imagine how intersecting racism, ableism, xenophobia, language injustice.

May impact survivors. So I'll give you an example of this. If a survivor is an immigrant or a child of immigrants, particularly living in a mixed status, family ho home, or having a mixed status family, a person who uses violence may threaten to call ice on their family or on the on them themselves, a survivor themselves.

If, or the survivor says, I'm gonna leave the relationship. Um, and this is a method of control, so this person using violence is using. Our societal level inequities, right? Our structural inequities rooted in xenophobia to control a, um, a survivor of adolescent relationship abuse. And so I think that's really important when we're thinking about adolescent relationship abuse as a whole.

Um, to really remember, this can be abuse that happens at the societal or structural level as well. And so I'm gonna have a kind of a note here about gender. So we know that violence is gendered, but young people of all genders experience it and also use violence in their relationships. So it's really important to consider context, impact and outcomes.

And one of the things I'll mention is that a lot of the research that has been done has been done in a very gender binary way. But now there is more work looking at the experiences of gender non-binary and transgender young people and research shows that they are more likely to experience adolescent relationship abuse, which is very much rooted in sort of transphobia and homophobia.

And so I think it'll be critical to continue to think about the needs, um. Of, uh, transgender gender non-binary young people. As the research continues to, um, show more about their experiences. And I also wanna pause and say, what is dating? And I actually think this is really important because dating may look like different things to different adolescents.

There may some be some adolescents who may not use the word dating. Sometimes they'll use the word talking to, hanging out with. Um, there may be

adolescents who, um, don't understand the word dating. Um, so I think it's really important to remember that the word dating can mean different things to different people.

And this is a little word cloud. Um, some of the adolescents in our adolescent collaborative were asked the question, what is a healthy relationship? And these are some of the terms that they thought really defined a healthy dating relationship.