How do adolescents perceive intimate partner violence and its associated issues?

In the UK, adolescents, particularly those aged 16 to 19, are among the most vulnerable groups to suffer intimate partner violence (IPV). Health promotion and intervention on this phenomenon is therefore significant and important. Due to the fact that varied definitions related to IPV have been documented in educational practice, it is unclear what knowledge adolescents have obtained from previous schooling and how they perceive IPV issues. To adequately prevent IPV and its associated issues from adolescent students, it is of crucial importance to examine how they understand definitions of IPV and their current knowledge of healthy or unhealthy, acceptable or unacceptable behaviours. To achieve this, mixed methods research was conducted to elicit students’ knowledge and understanding towards IPV episodes. Results from this study indicated that adolescents outlined inadequate understandings of IPV, an endorsement of some IPV myths and wrong conceptions of IPV-related issues existed among those in this sample. The findings of this study can be used to assist policy makers, educational practitioners and future researchers in understanding the crucial aspects of IPV-related issues among adolescent students.