Two out of three adolescents in romantic relationships have been both the victim and perpetrator of intimate partner abuse, psychology expert says

Two out of three adolescents in romantic relationships have been both the victim and perpetrator of intimate partner abuse, a psychology expert will tell the 2018 Australian Psychological Society (APS) Congress, held in Sydney, 27-30 September.

In one of the first Australian studies to examine youth intimate partner abuse, Elizabeth Daff, a researcher at Swinburne University of Technology, examined the experiences of 275 Victorian adolescents aged between 14 and 18 during 2016 and 2017. Each participant completed an anonymous questionnaire in which they reported their experiences of youth intimate partner abuse.

Daff says her research found 68 per cent of adolescents reported mutual aggression – physical, threatening or psychologically abusive behaviours – in their most difficult relationship. Approximately 38 per cent reported being victims of severe youth intimate partner abuse – behaviour involving significant physical violence or sexual violence, or very frequent psychological abuse – and 27 per cent reported perpetrating such behaviour.

“We asked participants to record behaviours that occurred in the same relationship, so rather than just giving a lifetime occurrence of whether participants have experienced this type of abuse, it meant we could look at whether they've experienced them mutually,” says Daff.

“What we found was the participants reporting mutual abuse were more likely to report high severity levels. They were most likely to report perpetrating more severe behaviours but that their partner was also using similar behaviours against them.

“So this isn't a pattern of one person in a relationship using really severe behaviours and the other person in the relationship reciprocating with more minor behaviours – this research is suggesting there's some equality in these behaviours.”

This mutual aggression is different to patterns typically observed in adults where men are more likely to perpetrate more severe intimate partner abuse and women are more likely to be injured by such abuse. Daff says there was no gender difference in how often the adolescents reported using physical, threatening or psychologically abusive behaviours.

But there was one area where adult patterns of behaviour were observed: sexually abusive behaviours. “This is consistent with international literature – boys reported perpetration of sexually abusive behaviours more and girls reported victimisation more,” says Daff.

She says the research has important implications for how we intervene in adolescent relationships experiencing intimate partner abuse.

“How we intervene in adult relationships might be different to how we should be intervening in adolescent relationships,” says Daff. “Further research will help us design interventions for adolescents rather than assuming what works for adults works for adolescents.”

Elizabeth Daff will speak about youth intimate partner abuse at the 2018 Australian Psychological Society Congress, held in Sydney, 27-30 September.

View the full Congress program

Note to editors:

Elizabeth Daff is available for interview in the lead up to Congress.