Activity 1
Correspondance to the curriculum: Social sciences
Title: Jeopardy
Duration: Approximately 20 mins
Number of players: All (Two teams)
Objectives:
- review components of healthy relationships
- encourage team work
- promote healthy decision making by recognizing signs of abuse
Description: Two teams aim to win the match: The facilitator reads a question out loud, and the first team to “buzz in” (the first team to have a member raise a hand) gets to answer the question. If they get it wrong, the other team gets a chance to answer. Most questions have more than response and the team who is answering tries to guess as many of the answers as possible. If they guess an incorrect answer, the other team gets a chance to guess. Each correct response is worth one point. When all the questions have been read, the team with the most points wins.
Questions:
1- Name reasons why relationship safety is an important issue?
- Both men and women fall victim to relationship violence.
- You are more likely to be abused by a partner than a stranger.
- Relationship violence can happen to anyone. Relationship violence can occur in friendships, romantic relationships or family relationships
- If violence in a romantic relationship is ignored and the partners live together or marry, the behavior will likely continue and the problem will involve not just the couple but any children they might have
2- Give characteristics of a healthy relationship.
- Non-threatening behavior
- Respect
- Trust
- Support
- Honesty
- Accountability
- Responsibility
- Fairness
- Compromise (Negotiation)
3- What are some examples of physical violence?
- Pushing and shoving
- Slapping, punching, hitting, kicking
- Choking
- Hair-pulling
- Throwing objects at the person
- Threatening to hurt the person with a weapon
4- Give reasons why a person would stay in an unhealthy relationship.
- Being in a relationship gives a person a sense of belonging. Most people value this greatly.
- The victim might be involved in his or her first romantic relationship and want it to last as long as possible. The victim might want to avoid the sense of disappointment that he or she would feel if the relationship ended.
- Peer pressure could be involved: the victim might want others to see that he or she has a girlfriend or boyfriend in order to appear popular and desirable.
- The victim might think it is his or her fault if things do not work out. (This feeling is often reinforced by the abusive partner, who blames the victim for what is going wrong.)
- The victim might confuse the jealousy and possessiveness of the abuser with real love and concern.
- The abusive partner might apologize and the victim might become hopeful that things will work out. The victim might want to help the dating partner change.
- The abusive partner might threaten the victim: “If you don’t go out with me, you’ll be sorry.”
- The victim might not want his or her parents to say, “I told you so.” This is especially true if the parents did not like the boyfriend/girlfriend right from the start. You might think your parents are too strict or controlling.
5- Correct the following myth: Jealousy and possessive behavior are signs of love: e.g., “Being jealous and possessive shows that I love him.”
Facts:
- Jealousy is not love. Becoming jealous to the point of treating the other person like a possession is abusive behavior.
- To protect yourself; consider whether you want to continue seeing someone who forbids you to see other friends. Possessiveness tends to get worse over time.
6- Wearing revealing clothes means a person is sexually willing: e.g., “He/she’s dressed in tight, revealing clothes, so he/she must be willing to have sex.”
Facts:
- Just because someone dresses in skimpy or revealing clothing does not give other people permission to touch the person or expect anything from him/her.
- You have the right to dress as you please. Be very clear and open about your boundaries and discuss what you want or do not want, what you will and will not tolerate.
7- Give possible consequences of dating violence.
Consequences are present both in short term and long term relationships.
- Dating violence may harm victims physically, sexually or psychologically, and the consequences may affect the rest of their lives.
- Damage to a person’s self-esteem, confidence or sense of security
- Affect their development and functioning
8- Give signs suggesting a friend is being abused.
Some signs include:
- Low self-esteem (the victim feels that she is unworthy and responsible for the abuse).
- He or she has a tendency to be withdrawn
- He or she seems nervous all the time
- He or she has unexplained cuts, bruises, scrapes, burns or bite marks
- His or her weight, appearance or grades have changed dramatically. These could be signs of depression which could indicate abuse.
- He or she is giving up things that used to be important to her, such as spending time with friends or other activities, and is becoming more and more isolated.
- He or she apologizes for his behavior and makes excuses for him.
- He or she frequently cancels plans at the last minute, for reasons that sound untrue.