Unhealthy Relationships

Unhealthy Relationships

What is domestic abuse? Domestic abuse is ‘an incident or pattern of incidents of abusive behaviour usually perpetrated by a current or former partner’.

This can include:

• Physical violence such as hitting, kicking, biting, etc.
• Coercive controlling behaviour such as isolation from family and friends, telling the victim what they can and cannot do and where they can go
• Psychological abuse (also known as emotional abuse) such as calling the victim degrading names or making the victim think that they are going ‘crazy’
• Sexual abuse such as unwanted sexual contact, rape or forcing the victim to send nude images of themselves or sharing these nude images (also known as ‘revenge porn’)
• Financial abuse such as taking the victim’s money or deciding how their money can be spent
• Harassment or stalking for example stalking the victim’s location on apps such as Snapchat, turning up unannounced to where the victim is or making unwanted contact with the victim

These examples are not a comprehensive list

Domestic abuse can affect anyone of any age, gender, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation or background.

Domestic abuse & young people

According to the national domestic abuse charity SafeLives:

• 25% of girls and 18% of boys aged 13-17 have reported to have experienced some form of physical violence from an intimate partner
• 31% of girls have reported to have experienced some form of sexual abuse within their relationship

Signs that your young person may be in an unhealthy relationship…

• They might be over defensive of their partner
• They may seem pre-occupied, distant or ‘on edge’
• They may check their phone more regularly than usual
• They could have unexplained bruises or marks
• They might seem unhappy down hearted or tearful, especially just after seeing their partner
• You might notice an obvious and sudden reduction in their self-esteem
• They may not see their friends as often as usual or not at all, or appear to have very little interest in seeing them
• Their partner may turn up to their location unexpectedly, without an invite

The Power and Control Wheel