Digital MediaAs digital media use (social media, mobile phones, Internet) becomes increasingly widespread among youth, so do concerns that these media may be a tool for teen dating abuse. Digital dating abuse (DDA) is defined as "a repeated pattern of digital behaviors to pressure, coerce, harass, or threaten a dating partner using mobile phones or the Internet."
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Digital Dating AbuseDDA is a common social issue for teens, and there is a strong link between in-person forms of abuse (physical, sexual, or psychological) and digital abuse (monitoring, control, harassment, humiliation, sexual abuse, sexual coercion). All teens experience DDA, but girls, youth of color, and sexual minority youth are most impacted.
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ResearchOur team conducts research on the prevalence of digital dating abuse, how to measure it, motivations to perpetrate, coercive sexting in relationships, and impacts on victims. Dr. Reed created one of the first survey measures of Digital Dating Abuse and has been studying this issue for over a decade. Dr. Reed is passionate about how to measure the gendered motivations, experience, and consequences of digital abuse.
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Poli Sci ClubOur team has partnered with high school students at Maryvale High School in Phoenix, where an incredible group of young social justice leaders are forming a student-led club- the Poli Sci Club- to engage their peers and community in social issues that are important to them.
We have received funding from the ASU Watts College for Public Service and Community Solutions to support this club's work, conduct a Photovoice project, and hire graduating students to be college peer advisors and provide mentoring for the high school students. |
Using youth participatory methods, we hope to study how this model may be effective in empowering teens to take leadership roles in social action, particularly for youth of color and first generation college students. College peer mentors have been disseminating our Photovoice project to the community through photo gallery events and are recording a podcast series!
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The groups are facilitated by an undergraduate student and co-facilitated by a member of our team.
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We recruited sorority members, women-identifying students, and LGBTQ+ students for these focus groups.
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We are grateful to be collaborating on this project with the ASU Sexual & Relationship Violence Prevention program, to inform their relationship education programming for ASU students. |
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Bringing all of this work on healthy relationships together, Dr. Reed has developed the TRI-THRIVE MODEL, a model of healthy relationships that youth can use to reflect on and self-assess close relationships in their lives.
Based on work with domestic violence survivors and what our team has been hearing from students in our focus groups, youth need healthy relationships education to provide a space to process their relationships based on their unique goals and situations. The TRI-THRIVE MODEL is meant to be an easy-to-use resource that can be added to existing healthy relationship programs and teen dating abuse prevention efforts. Our team is working on a pilot study to see if and how the TRI-THRIVE MODEL is useful for youth struggling with relationship conflict and abuse. We hope the TRI-THRIVE MODEL, along with other universal, targeted, and structural-level interventions, will help youth to build relationship skills and have thriving relationships. |
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Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) ProjectYPAR produces co-generated knowledge from youth and adult partnerships where youth are engaged in every phase of a project to address social problems. This project uses Photovoice methods to allow youth to explore and express their perspectives about their community during COVID-19.
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Faculty Consultant |
