A NEW Monash University study found young women’s experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) are often overlooked, which is mirrored in the experiences seen in Midland.

Midland area service providers said the study reflected what they saw on the ground.

Indigo Junction chief executive Sharon Gough said their organisation had observed controlling or coercive behaviours among young people who did not always recognise them as forms of violence.

“We ended up doing a lot of work in partnership with those young people to develop a program that actually is developed by young people for young people around educating what those behaviours look like and what healthy relationships look like,” she said.

“Bringing young boys and men to the table to really challenge some of those stereotypes was powerful in terms of shifting behaviour and supporting young men in particular to understand what’s okay and what’s not okay.”

Both researchers and frontline workers agree that improving understanding of youth intimate partner violence requires giving young people space to define their experiences and platforms to express them through art, conversation and education.

The study conducted by Monash social work PhD candidate Bianca Johnston explored the voices and visual artworks of 12 young women aged between 16 and 24 who had experienced abuse, often in more than one relationship.

Most participants in the study first encountered violence as teenagers, between the ages of 15 and 18.

“At different points in their journeys, the young women used many different forms of resistance, survival and safety strategies to keep themselves safe and avoid harm,” Ms Johnston said.

The women used artwork as a way to process, document and communicate what their experiences meant.

The study found many young women were unsure where to seek help and often relied on themselves to stay safe, with their actions sometimes misunderstood by adults and systems around them.

“The young women told me that it was important to have a name for this issue and see it as being distinct… so that their experiences were taken seriously and not dismissed as being soap drama because they were young,” Ms Johnston said.

Participants described the progression of abuse as a journey through several phases from relationship onset and escalation to survival, separation, and eventual recovery and healing.

Ms Johnston said understanding these phases could help social workers design interventions that respond to the realities of young people’s lives.

Ms Gough said in Midland, involving young men in prevention programs had proven vital to shifting attitudes.

“Quite often it’s not just exposure through family and dysfunctional relationships and role modelling,” she said.

“It’s in all parts of society in terms of where that exposure comes from and a lot of it might be social media.”

She said the key was calling it out as it happened and not enabling the behaviour if witnessed, and community groups such as Moorditj Maaman were available to support that process.