A Look Into RE-IMAGYN BC: Enhancing How We Measure Gender and Relationship Fairness

Authors: Yas Botelho (they/them) Youth Analysis Affiliate, School of Well being Sciences Simon Fraser College and Harman Grewal (she/her), Analysis Assistant, School of Well being Sciences Simon Fraser College | Editors: Romina Garcia de leon, Janielle Richards  (Weblog Coordinators) | Knowledgeable Reviewer: Lindsey Thurston 

Revealed: August sixteenth, 2024

Our intimate relationships are significant social determinants of well being. Lack of gender fairness in relationships can result in intimate accomplice violence, publicity to sexually transmitted infections, and undesirable pregnancies. Due to these potential well being outcomes, it’s necessary to: a) measure relationship fairness successfully and b) be certain that our measurements embody various relationship constructions and populations. Nonetheless, the scales at present used to measure gender-based energy dynamics inside intimate relationships had been designed solely with cisgender, heterosexual, white, and monogamous married ladies in thoughts.

The failure of those measurements to symbolize the wants of youth grew to become evident in Dr. Kalysha Closson’s work evaluating the effectiveness of the Sexual Relationship and Energy Scale (SRPS) with younger folks in South Africa. The SRPS measures controlling behaviour and decision-making dominance of male companions in intimate relationships. Within the examine, it was revealed that individuals had challenges with comprehension of the SRPS questions leading to a number of interpretations of questions and total, an absence of applicability to younger folks’s lives. These findings show a necessity for a extra inclusive and modern measurement of gender and relationship fairness.  

Intimate accomplice violence happens in all settings and socio-economic backgrounds, but analysis has proven that sure teams of persons are at better threat of intimate accomplice violence together with: younger ladies, younger disabled ladies, Indigenous ladies, non-binary youth, and lesbian, homosexual, and bisexual folks. Subsequently, there’s a nice want for extra correct measurements of relationship fairness to greatest help programming for these in danger.   

That’s the place our examine is available in: the Relationship Equity and Intersectional Measurement Among Gender-inclusive YouNg folks in British Columbia (RE-IMAGYN BC) is trying to create a extra inclusive and complete gender and relationship fairness measurement scale via a youth-led and community-based method that’s “knowledgeable by the lived and residing experiences of queer and trans youth”. 

In apply, this implies placing collectively a staff of youth who belong to the examine inhabitants of curiosity (queer, trans, gender various, and non-monogamous youth between the ages of 16 and 29 years in BC) to co-lead each side of the examine as Youth Analysis Associates (YRAs) or via our Youth Advisory Committee (YAC). 

The YRAs are embedded in RE-IMAGYN’s day-to-day analysis actions as they examine in with each other, in addition to the opposite examine members on a bi-weekly foundation. Moreover, they help the facilitation of the YAC, accumulate knowledge, and help with knowledge evaluation and data mobilization actions. They’re compensated $50 for each cognitive interview they full and $25/hour for all different study-related actions. 

Compared to the YRAs, the YAC performs an overarching advisory position. They take part in discussions about examine strategies, knowledge evaluation, and data mobilization in 2-hour conferences that happen each 4 to six weeks. When new youths be a part of the YAC, they’re compensated $50 for reviewing numerous onboarding supplies after which $50 for each assembly they attend and full the related pre-work for.  

Central to our youth-engaged method is permitting the youth to point out up on this work in one of the best ways that works for them. Some examples of this are: providing tailor-made analysis coaching in order that the youth really feel empowered to steer the examine, and utilizing strategies of communication which might be extra accessible to the youth, comparable to Discord and textual content versus e mail.  

The success of RE-IMAGYN is contingent upon the relationships we’ve with these youths, in addition to our neighborhood collaborators. We encourage the youth to carry their complete selves, that means their identities, experiences, tales, and worldviews, to all the things that we do. The aim is to collectively floor our work in relationality to disrupt energy imbalances that exist between researchers and neighborhood, making room for shared decision-making that makes for extra equitable and, in flip, higher analysis.  

To remain up-to-date with our examine, please observe us on Instagram @reimagyn.