Leaving a Violent Relationship

Intimate partner violence (IPV), defined as physical, sexual, emotional, and economic abuse and controlling behaviors inflicted within intimate partner relationships, is a global crisis that extends beyond national and sociocultural boundaries, affecting people of all ages, religions, ethnicities, and economic backgrounds. Though studies exist that seek to explain how people become trapped within violent relationships and what factors facilitate survival, escape and safety, this book provides fresh insights into this complex and multifaceted issue. People often ask of women in abusive relationships “why does she stay?” Critics suggest that this question carries implicit notions of victim blame and fails to hold to account the perpetrators of abuse. The studies described in this book, however, explore the question from the perspectives of survivors and represent a shift away from individual pathology to an approach based on the recognition of structural oppression, agency and resilience. Comprising eight chapters, new theoretical frameworks for the analysis of IPV are provided to guide practitioners and policy makers in improving services for vulnerable people in abusive relationships, and a range of studies into the experiences of a diverse range of survivors, including mothers in Portugal, women who experienced child marriage in Uganda, and refugees in the United States of America, generate findings which elucidate perspectives from marginalised and under-researched groups

Global Kids Online South Africa: barriers, opportunities and risks. A glimpse into South African children’s internet use and online activities

How do children use the internet? How do they access it? Does it present risks or opportunities for them, or both? What do parents think of their children’s online activities? Do they support it as an opportunity for learning? Or do they see it as harmful? We asked 913 children between nine and seventeen years, from three provinces in South Africa, and from different levels of household incomes, these questions and more. To compare their answers and find out more about the parents’ internet use, we asked 532 parents of the same children the same questions. Finally, we dug deeper into the children and parents’ answers with focus group discussions with 49 children and 20 of their parents. The report contains some of the things we found – some surprising, some not. It also makes some recommendations for opportunities for parents, teachers and schools, policy makers and reserachers, and mobile companies

Sexual Education: European Health Promotion. Training Guide

Working on sexual education is one of the most pressing, but also one of the most difficult issues facing today’s educational systems. Reflecting these challenges in an international project is an excellent opportunity to find new reflections and approaches. From a holistic, properly contextualized perspective, the EdSeX project presents well-founded work suggestions that make us think about what is expected from sexual education, from childhood to higher education, reflecting the training of professionals who work in area of health and education. There are many issues associated with sexuality that continue to concern us and that need to be addressed from childhood. Sexual identity begins to be defined early, and it is also early that stereotypical ideas begin to be constructed. After many years in which biological determinism prevailed that considered the nature of men to be different from the nature of women, the concept of gender considers that the cultural issues associated with sexual identity are a social construct. Conceiving the definition of gender, in a broad, multidimensional sense, taking into account identity, sexual orientation, personal skills and interests, the deconstruction of stereotypical ideas is the basis for building greater equity between everyone from childhood. This process implies that sexual education begins by building a critical knowledge of oneself and of others, in the recognition of diversity, from a citizenship perspective. Knowledge of oneself and of the other is also the basis for understanding the social context and the variables that characterize it, namely the risks that an uninformed sexuality can entail. The prevention of sexual and emotional violence starts early and must be worked on constructively at the various levels of education, without forgetting higher education and the training of future health and education professionals who will have to do this work with increasingly diverse audiences. In this complex context, having a support script based on diverse experiences is excellent guidance that the EdSeX project provides us. This Guide promotes sexual education as a dynamic learning process, from a dialogical perspective, giving visibility to sexual, linguistic and cultural diversity, using digital media in a constructive and critical way. In addition to the work resources provided, the project has the added value of the methodological part built that leaves the way open for the development of the work already started in the different countries involved, in terms of training and research. May the EdSeX project be the basis for the construction of many more projects!info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Exploring intrinsic religiosity as a means to militate against risky sexual behaviour in adolescents from Christian faith-based schools

Philosophiae Doctor - PhDAdolescent sexual development forms a crucial role in the process of identity formation and the establishment of healthy romantic and social relationships. However, some adults are uncomfortable with the notion of adolescent sexuality, and would choose to remain in a state of denial or ignorance. It is pivotal that adults address the topic of adolescent sexuality. Numerous adolescents are not adequately guided by parents, educators, and church leaders. Hence, their lack of basic sexual knowledge or simply having erroneous ideas appertaining to sexuality may cause them to make very unwise sexual decisions. A number of adolescents routinely engage in behaviours that unknowingly put their health at risk. Amongst South African adolescents, sexual risk-taking behaviours including early coitarche, unprotected sex, multiple sex-partners and low contraceptive use are quite common

Dating Matters for 7th graders : facilitator guide

Publication date from document properties.youth-facilitator-guide-7th-508.pd

Seeking for Love and Intimacy. Emerging Adults, Mobile Dating Affordances and Dating Culture

The security provided by social norms to individuals has been replaced by uncertainty and endless choices. With the advent of the Internet, the effects and dimensions of all these changes have been intricately combined and intertwined. People have discovered new ways to explore their private lives thanks to technological advancements which have augmented their social reality. The Internet has become a social mediator in a way that initiates, accelerates, defines, and even ends communication. Mobile dating applications have accelerated all these processes by influencing binding elements such as time and space, and have added new dimensions to the experiences, ideas, and perspectives of individuals by creating new patterns. Most, if not all, dates and romantic relationships have infiltrated online practices. All these factors affect the way how emerging adults perceive the world and reflect on their personal preferences. The Mobility Paradigm looks beyond immobile socioeconomic systems and fixed cultural identities to provide a new perspective of past and current cultures, thus looking through this lens will help me discover changes in the way romantic relationships are experienced and established. I aim to address this paradigmatic change and explore how these changes take forms through online tools and how they affect and create new patterns of love and dating.The security provided by social norms to individuals has been replaced by uncertainty and endless choices. With the advent of the Internet, the effects and dimensions of all these changes have been intricately combined and intertwined. People have discovered new ways to explore their private lives thanks to technological advancements which have augmented their social reality. The Internet has become a social mediator in a way that initiates, accelerates, defines, and even ends communication. Mobile dating applications have accelerated all these processes by influencing binding elements such as time and space, and have added new dimensions to the experiences, ideas, and perspectives of individuals by creating new patterns. Most, if not all, dates and romantic relationships have infiltrated online practices. All these factors affect the way how emerging adults perceive the world and reflect on their personal preferences. The Mobility Paradigm looks beyond immobile socioeconomic systems and fixed cultural identities to provide a new perspective of past and current cultures, thus looking through this lens will help me discover changes in the way romantic relationships are experienced and established. I aim to address this paradigmatic change and explore how these changes take forms through online tools and how they affect and create new patterns of love and dating

PREP: Focusing on the Boys, Implementing Wise Guys in Davenport Iowa, February 2016

Wise Guys was developed by the Family Life Council as one of the only teen pregnancy prevention programs to focus exclusively on young males.2 The first Wise Guys program was offered on a volunteer basis to males at a Greensboro Boys and Girls Club in the summer of 1990. The program asked young men to explore manhood and sexual decision making in a safe, respectful environment

A school-based social-marketing intervention to promote sexual health in English secondary schools: the Positive Choices pilot cluster RCT

Background: The UK still has the highest rate of teenage births in western Europe. Teenagers are also the age group most likely to experience unplanned pregnancy, with around half of conceptions in those aged < 18 years ending in abortion. After controlling for prior disadvantage, teenage parenthood is associated with adverse medical and social outcomes for mothers and children, and increases health inequalities. This study evaluates Positive Choices (a new intervention for secondary schools in England) and study methods to assess the value of a Phase III trial. Objectives: To optimise and feasibility-test Positive Choices and then conduct a pilot trial in the south of England assessing whether or not progression to Phase III would be justified in terms of prespecified criteria. Design: Intervention optimisation and feasibility testing; pilot randomised controlled trial. Setting: The south of England: optimisation and feasibility-testing in one secondary school; pilot cluster trial in six other secondary schools (four intervention, two control) varying by local deprivation and educational attainment. Participants: School students in year 8 at baseline, and school staff. Interventions: Schools were randomised (1 : 2) to control or intervention. The intervention comprised staff training, needs survey, school health promotion council, year 9 curriculum, student-led social marketing, parent information and review of school/local sexual health services. Main outcome measures: The prespecified criteria for progression to Phase III concerned intervention fidelity of delivery and acceptability; successful randomisation and school retention; survey response rates; and feasible linkage to routine administrative data on pregnancies. The primary health outcome of births was assessed using routine data on births and abortions, and various self-reported secondary sexual health outcomes. Data sources: The data sources were routine data on births and abortions, baseline and follow-up student surveys, interviews, audio-recordings, observations and logbooks. Results: The intervention was optimised and feasible in the first secondary school, meeting the fidelity targets other than those for curriculum delivery and criteria for progress to the pilot trial. In the pilot trial, randomisation and school retention were successful. Student response rates in the intervention group and control group were 868 (89.4%) and 298 (84.2%), respectively, at baseline, and 863 (89.0%) and 296 (82.0%), respectively, at follow-up. The target of achieving ≥ 70% fidelity of implementation of essential elements in three schools was achieved. Coverage of relationships and sex education topics was much higher in intervention schools than in control schools. The intervention was acceptable to 80% of students. Interviews with staff indicated strong acceptability. Data linkage was feasible, but there were no exact matches for births or abortions in our cohort. Measures performed well. Poor test–retest reliability on some sexual behaviour measures reflected that this was a cohort of developing adolescents. Qualitative research confirmed the appropriateness of the intervention and theory of change, but suggested some refinements. Limitations: The optimisation school underwent repeated changes in leadership, which undermined its participation. Moderator analyses were not conducted as these would be very underpowered. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that this intervention has met prespecified criteria for progression to a Phase III trial. Future work: Declining prevalence of teenage pregnancy suggests that the primary outcome in a full trial could be replaced by a more comprehensive measure of sexual health. Any future Phase III trial should have a longer lead-in from randomisation to intervention commencement