Influencers and attitudes: How will the next generation understand domestic abuse?

The purpose of this research was to ensure an evidence base for the design of education about relationships for children and young people (CYP), highlighting the positive influence that well structured Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) programmes can have and to ultimately investigate ‘what works well’. The findings are particularly important as they are presented alongside the other influencing factors that CYP are contending with today, some of which may potentially have a harmful impact on how CYP perceive and navigate relationships.

Our research, based on surveys with children and young people, provides insight into their views of gender roles, relationships and sex. It has important implications for how society invests in preventing domestic abuse – such as through Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE). Some of the key findings are:

• Children and young people exposed to misogynistic social media content like Andrew Tate were almost 5x more likely than those not exposed to view hurting someone physically as acceptable if you say sorry afterwards.

• We found that most children and young people could distinguish between healthy and unhealthy behaviours in relationships. However, a significant minority held attitudes that normalised unhealthy relationships and could not identify coercive and controlling behaviour, which underpins domestic abuse.

Read more about our Expect Respect training for schools and universities.