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Promoting Healthy Relationships Among Youth
This edition of the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence (NCFV) E-bulletin is on promoting healthy relationships among youth. This edition of the E-bulletin provides information on preventing youth violence and aggression. Specifically, it focuses on promoting and supporting the development of healthy relationships, particularly between caregivers and children, as well as peers at all stages of life.
The NCFV E-bulletin is a quarterly newsletter for those interested in family violence prevention. It is produced by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), on behalf of the Family Violence Initiative (FVI) of the Government of Canada. Content is provided as an information-sharing service; inclusion does not represent endorsement by PHAC or FVI member departments.
We want to hear from you – please send your comments and feedback to our editor at: ncfv-cnivf@phac-aspc.gc.ca.
According to Statistics Canada’s recently released Juristat Article Police-reported dating violence in Canada, 2008, almost 23,000 incidents of dating violence1 were reported to police in that year. It also indicated that:
- Between 2004 and 2008, police-reported rates of dating violence have increased across all ages in the study (15 to 55+ years). This may be due to a greater willingness to contact police and/or a shift in police practice to lay criminal charges in incidents of dating violence.
- Among all age groups in the study, common assault was the most frequently occurring offence in dating relationships (50%). Criminal harassment (14%), uttering threats (12%), and major assault involving a weapon and/or causing bodily harm (11%) were the following three most common offences.
- Some police-reported data indicates that adults aged 30-39 years are at highest risk of dating violence2. However, self-report data suggests otherwise, noting that youth aged 15 to 24 are at highest risk of being victims of dating violence.
- For those between 15 and 19 years, rates of dating violence were higher for female than male victims at a ratio of approximately ten to one.
- Victims aged 15-19 were somewhat more likely to be victimized in a location other than a private residence, including a street or open area, school or college campus.
- Sex differences in charging were highest among adolescents aged 15-19 years. Seventy-one percent of incidents led to charges for female victims versus 54% for male victims.
1. Statistics Canada defines dating relationships as those between current or former boyfriends and girlfriends as well as "other relationships". These are defined as a person with whom the victim had a sexual relationship or a mutual sexual attraction but to which none of the other relationship options apply.
2. Depending on the sample used for the measurement, police-reported data, from the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, can show mixed results. For example, when rates of dating violence were measured based on the total population, they confirm that those aged 15-19 years are indeed at highest risk. However, when based on the unmarried population, such data suggest that the highest per capita rates are actually among those aged 30-39 years.
Bullying, Dating Violence and Family Violence: It’s All about Relationships
Bullying. Dating violence. Family violence. These are all relationship problems that require relationship solutions. Revolving around power and control, research suggests that these types of violence are linked, and that left unchecked, early bullying can evolve into related behaviours in intimate and family relationships later in life.
Such aggressive behaviours are often learned in the home. Factors such as having parents who: are aggressive toward each other; do not discourage aggressive conduct in their children; and fail to encourage positive interactions with others, can have a negative impact on children’s behaviour. Children growing up in homes where these factors are present may then use aggressive strategies in their relationships and engage in bullying as a way to deal with problems.
Most children who engage in early bullying behaviour do stop over time and can grow to take part in positive relationships throughout their lives. However, there are a number of youth who do not outgrow these behaviours – this is particularly true for girls. A Canadian longitudinal study examining rates of bullying and dating violence trajectories showed that, of high bullying1girls, 100% engaged in early dating violence later in their teens. To compare, roughly 70% of high bullying boys were involved in dating violence in adolescence2.
Recognizing that bullying and dating violence can lead to future intimate partner violence, there is a clear need to intervene early. But what can be done?
Preventing bullying and family violence starts in the home. Parents and caregivers are the primary role models for appropriate behaviour and are responsible for providing the supports and positive environments necessary for healthy development throughout the lifespan. Establishing a healthy parent-child relationship early on can help to:
- increase social skills in infancy; contribute to greater social activity, self-esteem and positivity;
- increase problem-solving skills in infancy and academic skills in adolescence;
- enhance the ability to deal with stress in infancy; and
- ultimately lead to overall positive health and lifestyle choices through to adulthood.
To date, some progress has been made in identifying such effective prevention programs. For example, the Triple P (Positive Parenting Program) and the Nurse-Family Partnership program help to provide a strong foundation for healthy child development by promoting and enhancing positive parenting skills. However, more efforts are needed to develop, implement, evaluate and adapt programs that promote healthy relationships in the varying and unique communities across Canada3. Advancing such efforts to test and evaluate what works in the Canadian context is essential to preventing and reducing bullying, dating violence and intimate partner violence.
Sources:
Pepler, Debra, and Wendy Craig. "Responding to Bullying and Harassment: An Issue of Rights". In Rise up for Respectful Relationships: Prevent Bullying. Edited by Wendy Craig, Debra Pepler, and Joanne Cummings. National Printers: Ottawa, 2009.
Pepler, D., Jiang, D., Craig, W., & Connolly, J. "Developmental trajectories of bullying associated factors", Child Development, 79, 2 (March/April 2008): 325-338.
World Health Organization. Preventing violence through the development of safe, stable and nurturing relationships between children and their parents and caregivers (Series of briefings on violence prevention: the evidence). Geneva, 2009.
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1. "High bullying" refers to engaging in bullying more than once a month or regularly and frequently.
2. It is important to note, however, that girls and boys involved in high bullying behaviours represent approximately 4% and 19%, respectively, of the overall youth sample in the study.
3. Drs. Harriet MacMillan and Susan Jack are currently studying the feasibility of piloting the Nurse-Family Partnership program in Canada. The NFP is considered a best practice, as evidenced by rigorous evaluations in several different communities in the US.
The NCFV offers resources on family violence, including overview papers, reports, discussion papers, handbooks and videos. To preview our recently released resources, please see our What's New page. NCFV publications are available free of charge, in hard copy or online, in English and French and in alternative formats upon request. To order, please visit our website or contact us.
Coming Soon
- Distinguishing between poor/dysfunctional parenting and child emotional maltreatment
Library
The NCFV provides an extensive library reference collection. The following is a short-list of resources related to the promotion of healthy relationships. A full bibliographic search can be conducted online. Resources may be borrowed through an interlibrary loan through your local public, academic or institutional library:
Hold on to your kids: why parents need to matter more than peers
Gordon Neufeld, Gabor Maté
Toronto, ON: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2004, 332p.
The premise of this book is that parents today are being replaced by peers as sources of direction and instruction. The authors describe what they call 'peer orientation' and its negative consequences, since immature persons cannot and should not be expected to play such a role. Part III of the book gives a detailed program on how parents may reclaim their role as nurturers and mentors to their children.
Nurturing future generations: promoting resilience in children and adolescents through social, emotional and cognitive skills
Rosemary A. Thompson
New York: Routledge, 2006, 532p.
Indications of troubled youth are everywhere. To promote youth well-being, this book focuses on resiliency, protective factors and best practices in prevention research. Emphasizing the positive side of youth development, the book provides information on specific treatment intervention and prevention strategies that address the full spectrum of dysfunctional behaviour.
The price of privilege: how parental pressure and material advantage are creating a generation of disconnected and unhappy kids
Madeline Levine
New York: HarperCollins Canada, 2007, 256p.
The author examines privileged families and the resulting crisis for child development arising from materialism, the pressure to achieve, perfectionism, and disconnection. Practical advice is given as various child-rearing myths are discredited and the parenting practices that are toxic to healthy development and that have contributed to epidemic levels of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse are discussed.
Rage, rebellion and rudeness: parenting teenagers in the new millennium
Scott Wooding
Markham, ON: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2005, 281p.
The author examines teenager behaviour and provides specific solutions for dealing with adolescent children and their problems.
Peer pressure, bullying and teasing, self esteem, and teen dating are among the topics discussed.
Too safe for their own good: how risk and responsibility help teens thrive
Michael Ungar
Toronto, ON: McClelland & Stewart, 2007, 235p.
Canadian children are safer now than at any other time in history. So why are we so fearful for them? The author suggests that our mania to keep our kids safe actually puts them in harm’s way. He gives direction on setting appropriate limits and provides concrete suggestions for allowing children the opportunity to experience the rites of passage that will help them become competent, happy, and thriving adults.
What parents need to know about teens: facts, myths and strategies
David A. Wolfe
Toronto, ON: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 2007, 70p.
This book explains how parents can make an important difference in how teens develop the ability to make good choices. It also provides information about three key issues in adolescent development; that is understanding normal behaviour during adolescence, the significance of changing family dynamics, and being an effective parent.
Videos
In collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), the NCFV offers an extensive collection of videos that address family violence. Videos may be borrowed through NFB partner public libraries across Canada or through an interlibrary loan through your local public, academic or institutional library. To obtain a complete list of videos, libraries and distributors, please contact us or visit our video catalogue and Addendum to the Video Catalogue online.
Hero in the Shadows
The play, Hero in the Shadows, features a high school student named Tallie who witnesses domestic violence at home and its effects on her family. She becomes withdrawn at school and her teacher mistakes this for lack of motivation. In the final act, her teacher sees the truth as Tallie reveals she was hit by her father and takes the first step in breaking the cycle of abuse in her home. (DVD, 2007, 45 min.)
Introducing David A. Wolfe
David Wolfe, Ph.D., is a psychologist and author specializing in issues affecting children and youth - including how to form healthy relationships, and the prevention of bullying, dating violence, unsafe sex, substance abuse and other consequences of unhealthy relationships.
He holds the inaugural RBC Chair in Children's Mental Health at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and heads the CAMH Centre for Prevention Science in London. He is also Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Toronto and serves as Editor-in-Chief of Child Abuse & Neglect: The International Journal.
Dr. Wolfe's awards include the Donald O. Hebb Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology as a Science from the Canadian Psychological Association, and the Blanche F. Ittleson Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Delivery of Children’s Services and the Promotion of Children's Mental Health from the American Orthopsychiatric Association.
His interests in violence prevention have culminated into a comprehensive school-based initiative for reducing adolescent violence and related risk behaviours, known as the Fourth R. The Fourth R (for relationships) is a skill-based programme promoting healthy relationships with a focus on violence, high risk sexual behaviour, and substance use among adolescents. A recent evaluation of the program in southwestern Ontario schools showed that the program is effective in reducing physical dating violence, particularly among boys, two and a half years later.
Dr. Wolfe has contributed to the development of a number of publications on the issue of aggressive and violent relationships among youth, including:
Wolfe, D.A., Crooks, C. V., Jaffe, P., Chiodo, D., Hughes, R., Ellis, W., Stitt, L., & Donner, A. (2009) A school-based program to prevent adolescent dating violence: a cluster randomized trial. Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine, 163(8), 692-699.
Wolfe, D. A., Crooks, C. V., Hughes, R., & Jaffe, P. J. (2008). The Fourth R: A school-based program to reduce violence and risk behaviors among youth. In D. Pepler & W. Craig (Eds), Understanding and addressing bullying: An international perspective (pp. 184-197). Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse.
Crooks, C. V., Wolfe, D. A., Hughes, R., Jaffe, P. J., & Chiodo, D. (2008). Development, evaluation and national implementation of a school-based program to reduce violence and related risk behaviors: Lessons from the Fourth R project. IPC Review, 2, 109-135.
Crooks, C. V., Wolfe, D. A., &. Jaffe, P. G. (2007). School-based adolescent dating violence prevention: Enhancing effective practice with a gender strategic approach. In K. Kendall-Tackett & S. Giacomoni, Eds., Intimate Partner Violence (pp 16-2 – 16-18), Kingston, NJ: Civic Research Institute.
Wolfe, D. A. (2006). Preventing violence in relationships: Psychological science addressing complex social issues. Canadian Psychology, 47, 44-50.
Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence Network (PREVNet)
Led by Scientific Co-directors, Drs. Debra Pepler and Wendy Craig, PREVNet is a national network of Canadian researchers, non-governmental organizations and governments committed to stopping bullying. The primary goal of PREVNet is to translate and exchange knowledge about bullying to enhance awareness, provide assessment and intervention tools, and promote policy related to the problem of bullying.
Recognizing that bullying is a community problem across the lifespan, and not just a problem in schools, PREVNet uses a collaborative model that establishes partnerships with a variety of players in order to create safe, healthy environments for all Canadian children and youth. PREVNet’s partners include 65 researchers from 21 universities and 50 national organizations. Through these partnerships, the goal is to change understanding and practice to enhance social opportunities, promote mental and physical health, encourage the development of healthy relationships, and prevent crime.
On May 28, 2010, PREVNet held its fifth annual conference in Hamilton, Ontario, which focused on the theme of Healthy Relationships, Healthy Development, Healthy Communities. The day opened with a keynote address by Dr. Cindy Blackstock, Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, who discussed issues particular to Aboriginal communities and child welfare practices. Dr. Blackstock’s powerful presentation called for better strategies to respond to maltreatment and social disadvantage in Aboriginal communities and more alignment of services to address related risk factors. Breakout presentations throughout the day discussed current issues in the area of bullying and violence, including: the neurobiology of abuse; effective interventions in preventing and addressing youth aggression; and promoting healthy relationships and positive mental health in children and youth.
Key Dates
August 12 - International Youth Day
October is Child Abuse Prevention Month in Ontario
October 1 - International Day of Older Persons
October 3 to 10 - Family Violence Awareness Week in the Northwest Territories
3rd Week of October - YWCA Week Without Violence
Events
September 21 to 24, 2010 - World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, London, UK
October 25 to 27, 2010 - 9th International Looking After Children Conference, Montreal, QC
November 1 to 3, 2010 - The Global Domestic Violence Conference, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
November 3 to 5, 2010 - National Research Day 2010 – Engaging our Communities: Working Together to End Intimate Partner Violence, Fredericton, NB
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
DEAL.org is a web-based program developed by-youth, for-youth and is run by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's Youth Engagement Section. It began in 1997 with the goal of helping youth to realize their full potential by building protective factors and promoting positive relationships with family, friends, and community members. The DEAL.org website provides resources on youth issues such as: violence, drugs, and health and safety, and encourages youth to think critically and get involved in their communities.
The following resources on the promotion of healthy relationships can be found on DEAL.org:
Status of Women Canada and Canadian Heritage
Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) Violence Prevention Toolkit: an Excellent Resource for Aboriginal Communities
The demand for effective violence prevention programs within Aboriginal communities continues to grow. To meet this demand, NWAC developed the Violence Prevention Toolkit (VPT). The VPT project was made possible with support from Status of Women Canada and Canadian Heritage.
The VPT toolkit was developed and launched by NWAC youth in 2007. NWAC youth have repeatedly stressed that the most effective violence prevention projects for youth are those created, championed, and delivered by youth. For that reason, they have played a leadership role in the development of this toolkit. This project enables participants to recognize the early signs of violence, to know what resources they can turn to, and to feel empowered and motivated to take action in the prevention of violence in their own communities.
The VPT project was geared toward youth and service providers in a "Train the Trainer" type workshop series. Workshop participants were offered training on five components of violence including domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, emotional violence and bullying. The VPT Toolkit includes a facilitator guide, fact sheets, a feedback form, and a community action guide that details ways to get involved in violence prevention.
The VPT project has proved to be very successful. Much of the high success rate comes from the multiple contributions and support offered by community organizations and partnerships all across the country. To date, NWAC has trained over 440 participants and promoted the VPT Toolkit at conferences, gatherings, and events nationally and internationally. The feedback received has been overwhelmingly positive; many have identified it as one of the most innovative and easy to use violence prevention tools available. The VPT has also served as an awareness tool for Aboriginal communities and youth in recognizing certain types of violence, and has enabled them to become more empowered. It is NWAC’s goal to continue to work on the promotion of the VPT project and to continue to support communities and youth to deliver violence prevention activities.
Those wishing to receive additional information on the VPT may send an email to reception@nwac.ca.
Saskatchewan
Northern Research Project in Saskatchewan Aimed at Youth and Young Adults in the North
The Ministry of Justice and Attorney General and the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA) are working collaboratively on a Northern Research project concerning Northern alcohol use and violence. The objective of the project is to develop a social marketing approach on the responsible use of alcohol particularly aimed at youth and young adults in the north.
For more information contact Betty Ann Pottruff, Policy, Planning and Evaluation, Ministry of Justice and Attorney General at (306) 787-8954 or bettyann.pottruff@gov.sk.ca.
New Brunswick
Violence prevention pilot project for First Nations
A new pilot project has been launched by Esgenoopetitj First Nation in New Brunswick, the Women’s Issues Branch and Partners For Youth Inc. to create a sustainable framework for teen relationship violence prevention in Esgenoopetitj First Nation. This pilot project is the first of its kind in a New Brunswick First Nation community and will allow for the creation of a Community Action Team led by young women in the Esgenoopetitj area. It will enable the participating youth to attend a Making Waves/Vague par vague weekend workshop and then lead and develop an initiative for their own community over the next year. The action team will have a chance to base their framework on community and youth engagement models already in place, but will be able to adapt the models to fit the needs of their specific communities.
Choose Respect
Choose Respect is a Centre for Disease Control and Prevention inititative that helps teens form healthy relationships to prevent dating violence before it starts.
Engaging and Empowering Aboriginal Youth
Developed by Claire Crooks, Debbie Chiodo and Darren Thomas, the unique resource, Engaging and Empowering Aboriginal Youth: A toolkit for service providers, promotes a strength-based approach for service providers working with Aboriginal youth. This toolkit identifies several guiding principles for effective programming for Aboriginal communities and provides additional links to helpful resources in this area.
Promoting Healthy Dating Relationships
From the Master Trainer of RespectEd, this brief helps youth differentiate between healthy dating relationships and abusive relationships.
Sex: Healthy relationships
This website page developed by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, provides a useful reference describing aspects of healthy sexual relationships.
Sex? - A Healthy Sexuality Resource
In order to help youth make informed decisions about sexuality issues, the Nova Scotia Department of Health Promotion and Protection developed this resource. It is intended for distribution to Grade 7 students in the province. A related information sheet, "How to Talk to Your Kids about Sexuality and Healthy Sexual Choices", provides helpful suggestions for parents and other trusted adults.
Tools for Change
This website was developed by the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women Children with funding from the Ontario Women's Directorate. It has a comprehensive listing of resources that promote healthy, equal relationships
The Line
The Line is a four year social marketing campaign from the Australian Government that promotes respectful relationships among Australia's youth.
The NCFV’s November 2010 E-bulletin will focus on child neglect.
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Content of the NCFV E-Bulletin is provided as an information-sharing service; inclusion does not represent endorsement by the PHAC or FVI member departments.
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National Clearinghouse on Family Violence: Telephone 1-800-267-1291; TTY 1-800-465-7735; Fax (613) 941-8930; Web site http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/nc-cn; e-mail ncfv-cnivf@phac-aspc.gc.ca
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