Close up on relationships for the over 20s
Today people are marrying later (if at all), they are increasingly living de facto and often involved in serial relationships. The past 50 years have seen some radical changes in relationships yet violence seems to be a constant.
Study results released in the lead up to the International White Ribbon Day to mark the elimination of violence against women on November 25 showed that acceptance of violence in relationships was common in the age group surveyed - 12 to 20 year olds.
But do those attitudes change, does maturity impact on how we view partnerships, does experience modify our expectations?
UniSA PhD researcher and lecturer in social policy, Tammy Hand, is about to launch a comprehensive research project targeting the next age bracket - heterosexual women and men aged from 20 to 30 years - and she is looking for participants.
"Most studies focusing on dating violence have taken participants from secondary school and college or university, so the research is telling us only about the attitudes of the under 20s," hand says.
"When you think about it, for many people in that group experience of relationships can be limited and sometimes vicarious.
"I want to build on the research that has been done about young people and dating relationships but try to get a better sense of expectations around relationships from people in that next group where being coupled is more mainstream.
"I am interested in finding out more about perceptions of relationship equality, dating practices and dating violence, including sexual violence."
Hand wants to interview heterosexual women and men, aged 20-30 years about their dating relationships and experiences.
The research will include one confidential face-to-face interview, which will take approximately 60-90 minutes.
Hand says she wants to explore which behaviours young people themselves define as abusive and violent in the context of heterosexual dating relationships.
"A lot of studies have started out with definitions already in place, against which behaviours and attitudes are measured," Hand says.
"I want to know how the participants define things like equality in a relationship working from their definitions," she says.
"I also want to hear more about young people's experiences of dating violence and sexual violence and to examine those experiences in the fuller context of all violence in relationships from dating, through to live in or other domestic situations."
Anyone interested in taking part in this research can contact Tammy Hand on 8302 4360 or by email (tammy.hand@unisa.edu.au).