On 9th December Ross-shire Women’s Aid held a seminar looking at abuse within young peoples  intimate relationships.

At this event various invited guests looked at the links between dating abuse and domestic abuse.  Looked at how societal and cultural influences impact on young people, in particular looking at how the media influences expectations of relationships.  As well as looking at how we work with young people on this issue, this included looking at how we engage with young men and redefine masculinity.

Those at the event heard about the findings from research carried out by the NSPCC in 2009 which found that:

• Girls experienced high levels of all forms of abuse and where more likely to experience a detrimental impact, including living in fear.
• Having a ‘much older’ partner was associated with highest levels of abuse
• Girls with history of family violence had an increased likelihood of older partner.
• Young people either told a friend or no-one.
• There was a gendered impact of violence
• Boys minimised their use of violence  as just “messing around”
• The impact of  new technologies and coercive control was substantial.

Delegates watched the home office video on dating abuse, as well as the new dating abuse video Crush produced by the reduce abuse project.

For more information on this contact Heather at heather@rosswa.co.uk