Why focus on preventing adolescent dating violence and promoting healthy youth relationships? Because it’s a serious problem with long-lasting negative impacts for youth, families, and communities. 1 in 3 Canadian youth who have dated experience dating violence^[2], leading to depression, anxiety, suicidality, problematic substance use, eating disorders, sexual health issues, injury, and others.^[3]Adolescent dating violence is also a strong predictor that someone will experience adult domestic violence.^[4] This is why preventing adolescent dating violence is an effective primary prevention approach that stops adult domestic violence before it starts.^[5] 

By promoting healthy relationship behaviours in adolescents, we can stop the cycle of violence before it starts.

Parents and primary caregivers play a key role in supporting their children to develop healthy relationships skills that effectively prevent adolescent dating violence – yet most parents are unaware of adolescent dating violence and do not talk to their children about having healthy dating relationships.^[6]Traditional programs that could help are often time-consuming and don’t address the realities of parenting in the 21st century. Plus, traditional programs often ignore the power that our environments and social circles have on our choices and behaviours.

ConnectED Parents targets these challenges by providing a modern approach that helps parents learn and teach healthy relationship skills to their teens.

ConnectED Parents draws on decades of research that shows that our environments, the people in our lives, and digital approaches all have a powerful influence on parents’ choices and behaviours, including their decision to learn about preventing adolescent dating violence and to teach these skills to their teens.

Our environments have a big impact on our actions and decisions. We might not even realize it, but there are subtle cues in our environment that influence our behaviour. For example, ever notice how tempting those chocolate bars are at the checkout? That’s no accident – they were placed there to entice you into an impulse buy.^[7] But did you know that we can use the same tactic to promote healthy choices and behaviours?^[8] By flooding parents’ environments with cues that promote healthy youth relationships, we can encourage positive behaviours and make it easier for them to learn and teach their children about healthy dating.

Our social circles guide our decision-making and behaviours. We are constantly drawing on cues from those around us to guide our decision-making and actions. For example, ever notice how you mirror the body language of the person you’re talking to? It’s a sign of engagement.^[9] We also follow many unspoken rules (or social norms) about how we should behave. For example, we form lines at stores because it’s what we’re used to, and it’s a fair way to pay and exit. However, on Boxing Day, it’s become an accepted norm to ignore lines because discounts are at stake.^[10]

If we want parents to learn about healthy youth relationships and teach their teens these skills, we need to ensure the people in their lives are modelling these behaviours and that social norms reinforce them. By creating a culture of positive role models and supportive expectations, ConnectED Parents helps parents to promote healthy dating relationships with their teens.

Digital (text-based) approaches can be a game-changer in how we support parents to promote healthy youth relationships. Covid-19 has taught us that digital approaches are crucial in reaching service users and staying connected. And this has been a field of study for decades! The University of Chicago’s Behavioural Insights and Parenting Lab shows that digital approaches are effective at engaging parents and improving outcomes for children and youth. They found that brief, digital approaches, such as text messaging, can improve early literacy skills^[11], decrease chronic absenteeism^[12], and promote early math skills. ^[13] Plus, these approaches are well-received by parents because they are easy to access and require little commitment. To empower parents to learn about healthy youth relationships and teach these skills to their teens, ConnectED Parents leverages digital approaches that are convenient, effective, and engaging.

Research shows that parents are less likely to learn and practice new skills if it’s time consuming ^[14],[15] and not supported by their environment and social circles.^[16]

The ConnectED Parents approach builds on this research and makes it quick and easy for parents to learn about healthy relationship skills through text messages, while leveraging community and parent leaders to build a healthy social environment and a support system around them.

Here is a summary of how the ConnectED Parents approach will contribute to the prevention of adolescent dating violence (also known as our theory of change):