Young people's perspectives on online and offline experiences of interpersonal violence and abuse (IPVA)

Objective The overall aim of study was to provide an in-depth understanding of the impact of new technologies in instigating and maintaining violence and control in young people’s intimate relationships. Method This aspect... [ view full abstract ]

Objective
The overall aim of study was to provide an in-depth understanding of the impact of new technologies in instigating and maintaining violence and control in young people’s intimate relationships.
Method
This aspect of the study involved conducting 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews with young people aged 14-18 in each of the five European countries: England, Norway, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Italy, to enhance and deepen the results of the survey undertaken in schools. An interview schedule was developed to search for similarities and differences as well as capturing the interconnectedness of various factors. Data was analysed using a thematic framework which is a matrix based method that classifies and organise data according to key themes and concepts introduced in the topic guide as well as the emerging categories.
Results
The qualitative analyses offered an in-depth exploration of the themes that emerged from the data. These included experiences of sexual, physical and emotional forms of IPVA; control and surveillance; sending and receiving sexually explicit images via text, email or through social networking sites; impact of these experiences and suggestions for prevention and intervention
Conclusion
Qualitative findings showed that some young women experienced extensive offline sexual pressure and young women were substantially more negatively affected by IPVA than young men. The data revealed that online space has created new mechanisms of control and surveillance that sometimes intensify the impact of offline abuse. Analysing the data in the light of existing theories of cultural violence and coercive control, we explored both the normalising influence of prevailing heteronormative models of femininity and masculinity as well as young people’s agency to fight back such normalization.