Authors: Yas Botelho (they/them) Youth Research Associate, Faculty of Health Sciences Simon Fraser University and Harman Grewal (she/her), Research Assistant, Faculty of Health Sciences Simon Fraser University | Editors: Romina Garcia de leon, Janielle Richards (Blog Coordinators) | Expert Reviewer: Lindsey Thurston
Published: August 16th, 2024
Our intimate relationships are meaningful social determinants of health. Lack of gender equity in relationships can lead to intimate partner violence, exposure to sexually transmitted infections, and unwanted pregnancies. Because of these potential health outcomes, it’s important to: a) measure relationship equity effectively and b) ensure that our measurements encompass diverse relationship structures and populations. However, the scales currently used to measure gender-based power dynamics within intimate relationships were designed solely with cisgender, heterosexual, white, and monogamous married women in mind.
The failure of these measurements to represent the needs of youth became evident in Dr. Kalysha Closson’s work evaluating the effectiveness of the Sexual Relationship and Power Scale (SRPS) with young people in South Africa. The SRPS measures controlling behaviour and decision-making dominance of male partners in intimate relationships. In the study, it was revealed that participants had challenges with comprehension of the SRPS questions resulting in multiple interpretations of questions and overall, a lack of applicability to young people’s lives. These findings demonstrate a need for a more inclusive and contemporary measurement of gender and relationship equity.
Intimate partner violence occurs in all settings and socio-economic backgrounds, yet research has shown that certain groups of people are at greater risk of intimate partner violence including: young women, young disabled women, Indigenous women, non-binary youth, and lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. Therefore, there is a great need for more accurate measurements of relationship equity to best support programming for those at risk.
That’s where our study comes in: the Relationship Equity and Intersectional Measurement Among Gender-inclusive YouNg people in British Columbia (RE-IMAGYN BC) is looking to create a more inclusive and comprehensive gender and relationship equity measurement scale through a youth-led and community-based approach that is “informed by the lived and living experiences of queer and trans youth”.
In practice, this means putting together a team of youth who belong to the study population of interest (queer, trans, gender diverse, and non-monogamous youth between the ages of 16 and 29 years in BC) to co-lead every aspect of the study as Youth Research Associates (YRAs) or through our Youth Advisory Committee (YAC).
The YRAs are embedded in RE-IMAGYN's day-to-day research activities as they check in with one another, as well as the other study members on a bi-weekly basis. Additionally, they support the facilitation of the YAC, collect data, and assist with data analysis and knowledge mobilization activities. They are compensated $50 for every cognitive interview they complete and $25/hour for all other study-related activities.
In comparison to the YRAs, the YAC plays an overarching advisory role. They participate in discussions about study methods, data analysis, and knowledge mobilization in 2-hour meetings that take place every 4 to 6 weeks. When new youths join the YAC, they are compensated $50 for reviewing various onboarding materials and then $50 for every meeting they attend and complete the associated pre-work for.
Central to our youth-engaged approach is allowing the youth to show up in this work in the best way that works for them. Some examples of this are: offering tailored research training so that the youth feel empowered to lead the study, and using methods of communication that are more accessible to the youth, such as Discord and text as opposed to email.
The success of RE-IMAGYN is contingent upon the relationships we have with these youths, as well as our community collaborators. We encourage the youth to bring their whole selves, meaning their identities, experiences, stories, and worldviews, to everything that we do. The goal is to collectively ground our work in relationality to disrupt power imbalances that exist between researchers and community, making room for shared decision-making that makes for more equitable and, in turn, better research.
To stay up-to-date with our study, please follow us on Instagram @reimagyn.