Youth Campaign - Love Better

Background

Adolescents are more at risk of sexual and relationship violence, both as victims and perpetrators, than any other age group in New Zealand (NZ Crime & Safety Survey, 2014, 2023).

In Budget 2022, the Ministry of Social Development received additional time-limited funding for its prevention initiatives. This funding included the development of a campaign for young people. The result of that funding is Love Better - a primary prevention campaign aimed at fostering safe, positive, and equal relationships. It is a whole-of-population campaign that aims to disrupt and/or shift harmful discourses and behaviours around relationships that are universal and affect all young people.

The campaign was based on research and audience insights and delivered through youth-skewed media channels. The campaign had two phases which were delivered over three years.

Campaign Strategy

Adolescence is when we begin to explore our sexuality through romantic and sexual relationships. It is a period when our beliefs and attitudes about sex, relationships and gender can be challenged – or reinforced – by peers, whānau, and popular culture. It is a time of change and discovery as we start to develop identities that separate us from our parents. 

Patterns of harmful behaviour that become normalised during this time have a direct effect on adult victimisation and perpetration. The campaign was developed to disrupt these patterns of behaviour, reducing the harm caused by sexual and relationship violence and setting our young people up for the best chance of lifelong safe, positive and equal relationships.

Phase one – Break-ups

Bad experiences (beyond the ‘normal’ hurt of breaking up) had been experienced by 68% of research respondents. Consequences of break-ups included self-harm, depression, substance abuse, risky sexual behaviours, and violence and coercion – including blackmail, jealousy and revenge, possessiveness, and stalking.

Feeling hurt because of a breakup is a normal part of being human. How we respond to that hurt can cause more hurt or even harm to ourselves and others.

A concept was developed that asks young people to “Own the Feels”.

Own the Feels supported young people to acknowledge or own their pain and to channel it into something positive for themselves, this includes normalising or removing the stigma attached to asking for help.

This phase was aimed at acknowledging that break-ups hurt but there is a way through without harming themselves or others. The campaign focused on building the skills and knowledge that young people needed to safely navigate break-ups, whilst creating a peer-to-peer community to learn from and inspire each other.

The campaign was shared through multiple media partners, reaching over 95% of the target audience and offered a broad range of content to ensure that there was something for everyone.

Phase two – Coercive control

Evidence shows that young people are three times more likely to be both victims and perpetrators of coercive control than the general population. Our own audience research told us that controlling relationships were making it difficult for young people to focus on their work and studies. These same insights also highlighted that they struggled to be able to identify controlling behaviours in their own lives and that even when they could they were quick to justify those behaviours. 

"Love Creep” focused on ensuring young people could identify what controlling behaviour looked like, felt like and sounded like. We needed to ensure that young people understood it as a pattern of behaviour and could identify when ‘care’ turns ‘controlling’.  

The campaign was centred around an interactive digital experience that allowed young people to explore what coercive control looked, felt like, sounded like. It provided easy links to support for both those experiencing this type of abuse and those using abuse.  

Content was rolled out through partnerships with Love Island and Shortland Street supported by well-known youth content creators.

Did we make a difference

The campaign had a detailed theory of change for each phase. This was then validated after each wave of quarterly qualitative evaluation. Quantitative research was in market 24/7 and measured against a pre-campaign benchmark.  

Evaluation Highlights 

• Awareness of at least one source of support has increased since the campaign launched: 71% pre-campaign, versus an average of 87% at the peak of the campaign. 
• The number of people who say they wouldn’t reach out for help has dropped from 23% down to 15% 
• Fewer young people say they are feeling pressured to have sex which dropped from 31% to 24% post campaign 
• Understanding of control increased from 36% to 42% (although this was higher at 50% for those who had seen the campaign) 
• Threats from a partner dropped 13% to 8% and 
• Overall, we saw a 7% decrease in young people reporting any type of harm. 

For more information about Love Better, contact the team on lovebetter@msd.org.nz