Red flags we don’t see: Missed signs and missed support in teenage relationships

Anyone experiencing harm within a relationship deserves support from those around them to understand what’s happening and receive the help they need. That’s as true for teenagers as it is for adults. Yet our report finds that, for many teenagers today, the professionals and systems intended to keep them safe and help them thrive are failing to recognise and respond to harm within their relationships. 

Teenage relationship abuse (TRA) is a widespread and under-recognised form of harm affecting large numbers of young people. While awareness of healthy relationships among young people has improved, national and local systems continue to struggle to recognise TRA and respond effectively to prevent and limit harm. It remains only partially recognised, even though domestic abuse policy in England has undergone significant reform across the last ten years. Crucially, there is no dedicated legislative or policy framework for identification, recording, or response, leaving many young people invisible to the professionals and systems meant to support them.

Key findings

Prevalence, nature, and understanding of teenage relationship abuse 

Young people experience disproportionately high rates of abuse within relationships compared to older age groups. While teenagers’ awareness and understanding of relationships has evolved in recent years – with a notable increase in their confidence in spotting signs of harm – many still struggle to recognise abuse within their own relationships, particularly when it happens online.

While TRA shares some characteristics of adult domestic abuse, it is shaped by the distinct realities of adolescence. Young people rely on intimate relationships to build their sense of self-identity and belonging. The highly interconnected peer networks in which they exist therefore play a clear role in both sustaining and entrenching 
abusive dynamics. Behaviours such as bullying, coercion, emotional manipulation, and violence often extend out from young people’s relationships to the peer groups around them.

Digital technology and social media – described by young people as intrinsic, not separate, to their own real-life experiences – also considerably amplifies TRA. Online platforms offer a shared space for both beginning and sustaining harmful behaviours and patterns, including intense affection, rejection, monitoring and control.

TRA is also an evolving form of harm that can span a continuum of behaviours, including those broadly understood as bullying, harmful sexual behaviour, peer-on-peer abuse, child exploitation and child sexual abuse.

Drivers and risk factors

Gender and wider social and cultural attitudes play a role in driving relationship harm among young people. Most cases of TRA identified were male to female, with few girls experiencing abuse from other girls or boys experiencing abuse. Television programmes, social media, influencer culture, and pornography were all described as being associated with misogynistic, sexist and, ultimately, harmful behaviour within relationships.

Children who experience trauma and harm at a young age – including adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) – were also at risk of causing and experiencing TRA. Similarly, those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), with experience of the care system, or who have experienced school exclusion may be disproportionally affected. At the same time, we found that many young people experiencing or causing TRA had previously had no interaction with statutory support services and did not neatly fit into professionals’ traditional understanding of who may be at risk of harm.

System responses

TRA is a hidden harm, inconsistently defined across local areas and with poor data collections to match. Less than a quarter (21%) of local authorities reported having a dedicated policy, protocol or written guidance in place on how to identify and respond to TRA, and less than a third (31%) collected data on the number of children affected. While not directly comparable, reviewing similar questions from the FOI analysis for our 2021 report Missing the mark suggests a potentially concerning decline over the last five years in local authorities’ ability to identify and respond to harm.

Support provision for those both experiencing and causing harm in teenage relationships is insufficient. Huge variety in service type, availability, and age thresholds exist between local areas, creating a patchwork of support for young people. In many cases, support is available exclusively through adult domestic abuse frameworks, which fail to meet their needs. 

Those causing harm in relationships are particularly at risk, with under one third of local areas commissioning or providing specific support, and meaningful intervention often coming too late, after young people have been criminalised.

These issues are compounded by inflexible commissioning frameworks for support services, low confidence among professionals in identifying TRA, and child safeguarding responses that silo harms such as child sexual abuse, exploitation, and poor mental health, often failing to address abusive relational dynamics.

Recommendations

To improve the national and local response to TRA, we make a series of recommendations.

First and foremost, the government must develop a definition of TRA which is shared consistently across local areas. Dedicated pathways for identification and response must then be established, building on this joint understanding. 

Guaranteed access to effective, specialist support – which can flex to meet the complex needs of young people – is essential to both prevent and limit harm. Genuine early action must go beyond educational initiatives for young people, and instead focus on upskilling the workforce, supporting parents and carers, and investing in open-access youth provision where teenagers can explore their identity and relationships with others safely. 

Importantly, we are clear that the government must prioritise this systemic reform before changing the age threshold for domestic abuse in the Domestic Abuse Act. Young people’s voices must be at the front and centre of this work. Meaningful opportunities for young people to engage with and co-produce the support systems that are designed to keep them safe must be established, recognising their expertise in their own lives.

Purpose of this report

Teenage relationship abuse (TRA) is a significant and growing concern affecting young people across the country. While policymakers and practitioners have started to turn their attention to the issue in recent years, teenagers experiencing abuse in their relationships continue to face inconsistent recognition and support. For parents, carers and other adults in their lives, knowing how best to support those who have experienced or are causing harm remains unclear.

TRA is not, however, a new issue. The Children’s Society first examined understandings of abuse and harm in teenage relationships in our report Missing the mark 1  in 2021, finding significant shortcomings in the response for young people. Five years later, this report examines whether these failings have been addressed, and what barriers remain.

Since 2021, some policy and legislative progress has been made. Under the 2021 Domestic Abuse Act, children witnessing domestic abuse and violence within the family are legally recognised as victims in their own right. The government’s 2025 Freedom from Violence and Abuse strategy 2  for tackling violence against women and girls 
(VAWG) focusses clearly on the need to deal with harmful stereotypes and behaviours early on in children’s lives, and frames TRA as a significant harm that must be addressed. 

However, progress has been slow, and many young people are still being harmed. Recent research from the Youth Endowment Fund highlights the prevalence of domestic abuse and violence within teenage relationships. It found that 39% of those aged 13 to 17 who had been in a relationship in the past year had experienced emotional or physical abuse by a partner. 3  In 2024, half of all police-recorded instances of child sexual abuse in England and Wales were perpetrated by other children aged 10 to 17. 4  And a recent report by the independent Domestic Abuse Commissioner found that, despite legislative developments, many statutory services still fail to recognise children as victims of domestic abuse, leaving them vulnerable to further harm. 5

Against this backdrop, this report seeks to uncover new insights about the nature of and response to TRA today. It will explore understandings of TRA by both young people and professionals, the life experiences of those who cause and experience harm, the availability of support, and how existing services and multi-agency partnerships respond. Drawing on findings from our work in 2021, we will consider how practice has changed and make further recommendations for improving the national policy response to TRA.

Language

The language used to describe TRA can be contentious and inconsistently applied. There is no single definition, and various terms can be used to describe different forms of abuse and harm in teenage relationships. These include youth intimate partner violence, adolescent domestic abuse, teenage relationship abuse, and teenage relationship harm. At the time of writing, there remain live policy debates at a national level on whether to amend the legal definition of domestic abuse to also capture relationships involving young people under the age of 16.

In this report, we choose to use the term teenage relationship abuse (or TRA), reflecting the academic and policy evidence base on the issue, including the UK government’s approach in the recently published VAWG strategy.² 

We recognise that many of the behaviours and relationship dynamics detailed in this report may fall outside what some professionals and policymakers typically understand as being TRA. Instead, our findings reflect the evolving and overlapping nature of harm in teenage relationships, which can span a continuum of behaviours – including those broadly understood as bullying, harmful sexual behaviour, peer-on-peer abuse, exploitation, and child sexual abuse. We also include behaviours which would constitute the legal definition of domestic abuse if the age threshold was lowered, including coercive control, and physical, sexual, emotional and economic abuse.

We have also chosen not to describe young people as victims or perpetrators in the context of TRA, instead saying that they experience or cause harm. We feel it is important not to stigmatise children who cause harm, and also acknowledge that many young people do not recognise their experiences of TRA through a victim’s lens.

Methodology

This report seeks to explore an understanding of TRA in 2026. To do so, we explored five main research questions:

1. How is TRA understood and characterised, both by young people and professionals?
2. What makes it more likely for young people to cause or experience abuse in teenage relationships?
3. What support is available for young people experiencing or causing abuse in teenage relationships, and how effective is it?
4. How does the children’s social care system, alongside other multi-agency partners, respond to TRA at a local level?
5. What more can be done to improve the system response to TRA?
    

We thank VotesforSchools for developing resources to facilitate classroom conversations on healthy and unhealthy relationships, and for gathering the thoughts of over 58,000 young people aged 5 to 18 across England. These young people (45,897 aged 11 to 18, and 12,276 aged 5 to 11) were asked to vote yes or no on two questions:

• Do you know what a healthy relationship feels like? (Children aged 5 to 11.)
• Do you feel confident recognising unhealthy relationships? (Children aged 11 to 18.)

We conducted a series of one-to-one and larger focus group discussions with professionals employed by The Children’s Society. We spoke to a total of 18 practitioners and managers working across our services responding to risk.*

* These include: support services offering therapeutic interventions for child sexual abuse; support services for young people being criminally and/or sexually exploited; services working with young people involved in youth violence; and services supporting children and young people who are victims of domestic abuse in a family context.

In April and May 2026, we submitted Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to 151 local authorities in England.* All these authorities have legal responsibilities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in their area, and to assess need and provide support to victims (both children and adults) of domestic abuse in their area under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. Mirroring our approach to collecting data for our 2021 report, we asked about policies and procedures local authorities have in place to respond to TRA, data collections, and a description of available support services for both those causing and experiencing harm in teenage  relationships. Of the 151 local authorities we contacted, 100 provided responses (a 66% response rate).**

* Our intention was to FOI all local authorities in England, however an administrative error in our data collection meant that two local authorities were not contacted.
** This is a similar response rate to the FOI request analysed as part of our 2021 Missing the mark report (65%). The two datasets cannot be directly compared, as responses to the Missing the mark request were provided by different local authorities to those responding in 2026 (partly as a result of changes to local authority footprints in the intervening time). Furthermore, the questions asked across both FOI requests varied slightly. However, where general comparisons about the changing nature of support provision in this area could be made, we have sought to do so.

This was furthered by qualitative insights on TRA from five professionals working across four different local authorities. These professionals held roles within children’s services, adult domestic abuse commissioning, and youth violence teams. 

This is all in addition to desk-based and contextual information on the policy and evidence. We conducted a literature review of academic and grey literature on the issue of TRA and associated topics (including young people’s experience of misogyny, peer-on-peer sexual abuse, harmful sexual behaviour, and wider adverse childhood experiences). 

All the professionals we spoke to referred to TRA in England only. In addition, we were unable to engage directly with young people either experiencing or causing TRA. Instead, we relied on the VotesforSchools work, which sampled young people’s understanding of healthy and unhealthy relationships. We recognise these limitations and propose that future research addresses them to ensure that young people’s contexts and experiences are more fully represented, along with the other nations in the UK.

Over the past decade, domestic abuse policy in England has undergone significant reform. The Serious Crime Act 2015 introduced the offence of controlling or coercive behaviour, while the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 established the first statutory definition of domestic abuse, strengthened protections for victims, and recognised children who see, hear or experience the effects of domestic abuse as victims in their own right. Together, these developments reflect a broader shift in understanding domestic abuse as a serious harm requiring coordinated intervention.

Since the publication of Missing the mark, there have been further positive developments. Statutory guidance on domestic abuse includes a recognition of abuse within teenage relationships. Recent policy initiatives, including the government’s 2025 VAWG strategy², have also highlighted the importance of preventing harmful behaviours among young people, alongside supporting healthy relationships. Updates to the relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education curriculum 6  in 2025 include teaching pupils about respecting boundaries and consent, and supporting young people to identify controlling behaviour. The Domestic Abuse Commissioner has also undertaken substantial work examining children and young people as victims in their own right.⁵ 

However, TRA remains only partially recognised, with no dedicated legislative or policy framework for identification, recording, or response. Abuse occurring within relationships involving children under 16 is not captured within the statutory definition of domestic abuse, and is instead addressed through child protection frameworks. In this way, TRA is understood as a child safeguarding risk and, if reported, is not necessarily recorded as a harm occurring within an intimate relationship. 7

Support for young people experiencing both domestic abuse and TRA is also extremely limited. 8  Specialist advocates who work directly with children affected by domestic abuse and sexual violence – known as children’s independent domestic violence advocates (CHIDVAs) and children’s independent sexual violence advocates (CHISVAs) – play an important role in helping children navigate their experiences of harm. This includes advocating for their needs and rights with other professionals making decisions about how best to support them. 9  But funding for these roles remains insecure. New initiatives like the Steps to Safety programme, which will connect patients to specialist domestic abuse and sexual violence services within their local area through their GP, 10  may open doors for the better identification of young people experiencing relationship harm, though at the time of writing, detail about delivery is unclear. 

Progress against the majority of Missing the mark recommendations has also been limited. No standalone statutory guidance on TRA has been issued, and no duty has been introduced to commission specialist support for young people affected by TRA. There has also been little progress on national data collection, service mapping, or legal reform relating to coercive and controlling behaviour or abuse among young people. While recognition of TRA has increased, this has not yet translated into the comprehensive policy and system reforms needed to improve prevention, identification and support. 

Prevalence 

Current evidence indicates that young people experience disproportionately high rates of relationship abuse compared to older age groups. In 2025, a significantly higher proportion of people aged 16 to 19 (18.2%) and 20 to 24 (12.9%) were victims of domestic abuse in comparison to those aged 25 years and over. 11  Data shared by Refuge aligns with this trend, indicating a concerning rise of abuse experienced by girls aged 16 to 25 who comprised 16% of new referrals to their services between 2024 and 2025. 12

Evidence also points to high levels of abuse among younger teenagers. Research by the Youth Endowment Fund in 2025 estimated that two in five teenagers aged 13 to 17 in relationships experienced emotional or physical abuse from their partner within the preceding year – the equivalent of 390,000 13- to 17-year-olds across England and Wales.³ 

Of these, 36% of young people reported forms of emotional abuse, including criticism of their appearance, and technology-facilitated abuse such as partners checking their devices and monitoring their location. A further 15% said they had experienced physical or sexual abuse, including being pressured or forced into sex, being physically hurt, or having explicit images of them shared online. 

Impact 

Although the impact of TRA is an emerging area of research, current insights paint a concerning picture of how this form of harm is affecting young people. 

Research points to the compounding negative impact of relationship abuse on the self-esteem and wellbeing of young people. 13  A recent study found that teenagers who have experienced TRA feel it affects their everyday lives, impacting anxiety, self-esteem, and the ability to sleep, eat and concentrate.³ Over one in five said that they avoided school or college because of something that had happened with an intimate partner, while 32% of boys and 45% of girls shared that it had increased their feelings of worry. Others shared that their partners made them feel negatively about their appearance, which led them to change how they looked. This was disproportionately reported by girls: 30% shared this concern compared to 17% of boys. 

There is also emerging evidence about how TRA can escalate to some of the most serious harms, including suicide and murder. 14  The murders of Holly Newton 15  and Ellie Gould 16  are both examples of how coercive control, technology-facilitated abuse, and threats of self-harm can escalate, tragically resulting in both of them losing their lives at the hands of intimate partners. Holly Newton’s partner reportedly accessed her social media accounts, changed her passwords, and emotionally blackmailed her before she died, while Ellie Gould experienced coercive control and educational sabotage as her boyfriend undermined and challenged her efforts at school. 

Experiencing TRA has also been connected to self-harm and suicide. A young person was recently identified as the first teenager whose death was reported as a suicide linked to domestic abuse. This is a worrying trend in domestic abuse-related deaths among adults – according to the Domestic Homicide Project, suicides related to this harm have outstripped homicides for the third year running 17  – and may well foreshadow similar trends soon to be uncovered among young people. 

Practitioners strongly reflected these concerns in interviews. Many recalled cases of serious self-harm, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and serious overdoses as particularly common among those who have experienced harm in relationships. They described an increasing number of young people presenting in serious mental health crisis as a direct result of TRA, and questioned whether there would be a further increase in suicides as a result of relationship harm in the coming years. 

What young people tell us about recognising unhealthy relationships

Our findings suggest that young people’s awareness and understanding of teenage relationships has evolved in recent years. This perhaps reflects increased public and political attention on violence against women and girls, alongside an upward trend in the discussion of healthy and unhealthy relationships in schools, online and through wider media.

In our 2021 Missing the mark report, we found that more than half (51%) of the 17,783 secondary school pupils who took part in a vote at the time did not believe that young people could recognise the signs of an abusive relationship. Many felt that awareness was limited among their peers, and that existing education was not sufficient to help young people identify or respond to harmful or abusive behaviours.

By contrast, our work with VotesforSchools in April 2026 suggests a marked and welcome increase in young people’s confidence in spotting the signs of harm. 87% of the 43,966 secondary school pupils taking part in this year’s work reported feeling confident recognising unhealthy relationships, rising to 89% among the 2,311 college-age respondents. A large proportion (87%) of the 13,224 students in primary school taking part also told us that they know what a healthy relationship looks like. Young people referenced personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) lessons on the topic, wider public discussion of relationships, and social media as factors that had helped them understand the signs of unhealthy or harmful behaviours in relationships. In many sessions, they were able to mention specific things they would look for, like using violence or “when someone is no longer being their true self”. 

Our questions to young people:

• Do you know what a healthy relationship feels like? (5 to 11)
• Do you feel confident recognising unhealthy relationships? (11 to 18)

Adolescence is a critical stage of development during which young people navigate complex social and emotional challenges. Given this, both social and environmental factors can shape how harm is understood by young people, and their ability to recognise and respond to unhealthy relationship dynamics. 21  In interviews, many professionals described a range of factors that can make young people more vulnerable to both experiencing and causing harm in relationships, and indicated that there is no clear, homogenous description of a ’victim’ or ‘perpetrator.'

Within current safeguarding practice, it is well understood that some of these factors, namely family environment and ACEs, can potentially impact young people’s experience of a range of harms later on. Other factors, however – including the role of wider societal and cultural attitudes towards gender, relationships and sexism, alongside the influence of online harms – are less well understood in a safeguarding context, making responses to TRA more challenging.

Gender, misogyny and harmful social norms

Evidence shows how gender norms, misogyny and sexism are frequently identified as important drivers of gender-based harms.²¹ It also highlights the way traditional gender stereotypes can both normalise abuse and shape behaviour within intimate relationships. 22  This is reflected in available data: Safe Lives has reported that 95% of young people experiencing abuse within relationships identify as female,²¹ while the Office for National Statistics has shown that girls are more likely to report the prevalence of harmful sexual behaviours, including sexist comments and being sent or coerced into sharing sexual images among their peers. In contrast, boys are less likely to perceive these behaviours as affecting themselves or those around them. 23

Our interviews with professionals reflected these gendered patterns. Most cases of TRA identified by practitioners were male-to-female harm, with very few cases of either girls experiencing abuse from other girls, or boys experiencing abuse in relationships. When this was the case, female-to-male harm was most commonly characterised by girls using emotional abuse and manipulation against their partners. 

Practitioners interviewed felt that different understandings of gendered harm – namely female-to-male, female-to female, and male-to-male – were less clear.

If it was a male punching a female, then there may be the idea of domestic abuse within that. But a female punching a male, or a male punching a male would probably be lost within [what is understood by professionals as] just ‘teenage behaviour’.

- Practitioner working in a child sexual abuse and exploitation support service

Experiences of male-to-male abuse, when identified, predominantly came from practitioners who were supporting young people in services designed to respond to cases of child sexual abuse and exploitation. In these instances, practitioners noted that experiences of harm within relationships may look different to heterosexual dynamics. They reflected on cases of gay and bisexual boys and young men who had been in abusive relationships where “the abuse is short and sharp … rather than being with someone for six months over the year that is groomed and abusive over time”, and where young people were pressured, manipulated or otherwise coerced into take part in activities like ‘chemsex’, or drug use while engaging in sexual activity. Specific apps like Grindr were also frequently referenced as platforms where opportunities for harm within relationships between boys and young men were first established.

More widely, the role of social and cultural attitudes about sex, relationships and gender were considered influential in shaping young people’s beliefs and experiences of relationships. Television programmes, social media, influencer culture, and pornography were all described as factors which contributed to the normalisation of unhealthy relationship dynamics. Many practitioners also spoke of young people whose experiences of both causing and experiencing harm were closely connected to what practitioners would describe as sexism and misogyny. 

Students working with VotesforSchools resources in colleges also spoke to the normalisation of unhealthy relationships in society today, and how this can create added pressure for young people to behave in a certain way, or put up barriers to challenging harmful dynamics.

Behaviours become more obvious as they become unhealthy; however, unhealthy relationships are becoming the norm and people are beginning to romanticise it in this generation, making people believe that they have to act a certain way in a relationship.

- College student

Across interviews with professionals, there was particular concern about young people’s exposure to misogynistic content online, including so-called ‘manosphere’ influencers. These people promote traditional gender roles and expectations that female partners should be subservient, acquiescent, and accommodating of male needs. Many professionals connected these online experiences with the increasing prevalence and ease of access for many young people to pornography, much of which is violent and degrading towards women. 

Others commented on the role of platforms like OnlyFans in bringing young people closer to the sexualised versions of girls and women portrayed in pornography, closing the gap between what may once have been perceived as fantasy or pure entertainment and the realities of young people’s own lives.

They’re not imaginary figures, in like how [pornography] stars used to be … now they’re real people that [young] people feel they have a relationship with … they have access to their lives … The women boys are watching having sex in really violent, really extreme ways are women they feel they know ... And because they’ve become real, it becomes easier, I think, to apply … to the real girls in their life.

Pornography existed in magazines. The idea of knowing the person was incredibly distant, like they were just images. Then we progressed to films, but they were very clearly porn stars. It was a version of like, fantasy, like very clearly fantasy. And I don’t think there was as much of an expectation of what you see there, you would transfer into your own relationship … Whereas now it’s a very different thing.

- Professionals working in a national programme on issues of child abuse and exploitation

These concerns mirror emerging evidence on the influence pornography and violent content can have on sexual violence among young people. Research by the Youth Endowment Fund found that 33% of 13- to 17-year olds had encountered content promoting violence against women and girls, while more than a quarter (27%) had seen images or threats of sexual assault.³ A survey conducted by the Children’s Commissioner further found that those who had viewed pornography were more likely to agree that girls could be persuaded into having sex after saying no than those who had not. 24
 

Importantly, however, practitioners’ views diverged regarding the extent to which misogynistic culture can be understood as a substantive driver of, or explanation for, young people causing harm in their relationships. While some felt that the influence of cultural and social attitudes were inextricably linked to cases of TRA, and further, evidence of a tangible change in how young people navigate relationships with peers today, others disputed this. For this group, there was a concern that framing TRA through the lens of wider cultural misogyny obscured the specific dynamics of harm within relationships, and particularly how those causing harm can manipulate and exploit opportunities to entrench abuse against a partner, ultimately reducing accountability for those responsible. 

This reflected a much broader tension in practitioners’ views on how best to respond to young people harming others, and the difficulty of finding a balance between supporting young people to understand the impact of their harmful behaviours, addressing the wider experiences and vulnerabilities that may have contributed to those behaviours emerging in the first place, and creating genuine space and support for the person who has been harmed.

Family dynamics and early experiences of harm

Exposure to violence at home, poor mental health, social disadvantage, and experiences of exploitation have all been associated with increased risk of both causing and experiencing harm in intimate relationships.^3,13,17

The influence of family life on young people’s vulnerability to both experiencing and causing TRA was a common observation from practitioners. Many shared examples of young people who had grown up in disruptive, unsafe environments, and witnessed or experienced abuse, violence, exploitation or neglect. Experiences of domestic abuse and violence between parents or carers was commonly referenced, as were experiences of growing up in care.

In these instances, practitioners reflected on the impact of either unhealthy or absent relationship dynamics being modelled to children and young people by the adults around them. Many felt that children and young people growing up in these environments were more likely to seek emotional safety, security and regulation through their own intimate relationships, in doing so, interpreting behaviours that may be seen by adults to be abusive or controlling as evidence of care and connection.

A lot of the children that we work with never understand healthy relationships [when they are first referred]. They’ve never been modelled to them.

- Practitioner working in a child exploitation support service

Experiences of witnessing or experiencing harm and violence in a family context were also described as common to those who caused harm in relationships. Practitioners frequently reflected on young people exhibiting behaviours like hitting, punching or strangling their partners, where these same behaviours had been witnessed from a young age between parents. Indeed, many also spoke of the prevalence of TRA co-occurring with child-to-parent violence, and in some cases, other violence outside of the home, including carrying and using weapons. This mirrors evidence on the overlap between TRA and other forms of violence, including research which showed that 79% of young people experiencing criminal exploitation also reported violent or controlling behaviour within an intimate relationship.³

More widely, experiences of trauma as a result of both intra- and extra-familial harm (including child sexual abuse and child sexual or criminal exploitation) were also referenced by practitioners as potential drivers of later TRA. This is particularly the case when coupled with a lack of intervention or support at the right time to help a young victim understand and recover from these experiences.

Where does that need to control come from? From an absolute lack of control in other areas. They themselves have often faced abuse and different forms of harm … they feel the need to exert power and control over something because they’ve been so powerless before.

- Practitioner working in a child exploitation support service

If you’ve been exploited as a 15-year-old and you don’t know any different and you’ve not had support, you’ve not had somebody break that cycle … it just carries on.

- Practitioner working in a child exploitation support service

Different experiences of risk and harm

Further, some groups of children and young people may be disproportionately affected by TRA, including those with special educational needs and disabilities, those supported by a social worker, and those who have experienced school exclusion.³  25

In our interviews with professionals, there was strong consensus that young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) were overrepresented in support services working with both young people who had been harmed within relationships and those causing harm. In both cases, practitioners felt that neurodiverse young people found it much harder to identify healthy and unhealthy behaviours in relationships than their neurotypical peers, and had different understandings of safety and consent within relationships. This was also reflected in our VotesforSchools findings, where teachers commented that their neurodiverse students felt less able to notice the signs of relationship abuse in discussions.

Further, practitioners reflected on how cultural, religious and community contexts can shape how young people understand, experience and disclose harm within relationships. For example, several reflected on the ways in which expectations of relationships, gender roles, and family life can differ across communities, influencing both young people’s own perceptions of healthy or unhealthy behaviour, and the responses of adults around them.

Despite growing policy attention and legislative developments since the publication of Missing the mark in 2021, the picture painted by our research suggests that significant barriers remain. From identifying abuse in the first place to accessing meaningful support once concerns are recognised, young people continue to encounter a fragmented system that struggles to respond to the complex realities of harm in teenage relationships.

Teenage relationship abuse is a hidden harm

A key finding from our FOI analysis is that local authorities and multi-agency partners continue to struggle to effectively identify TRA. Less than a third (31%) of local authorities who responded to our FOI request collected data on the number of teenagers who experience abuse within relationships. Of those, just 10% could distinguish whether these young people were between the age of 13 to 16, or 16 to 17, suggesting younger teenagers in particular are being lost within existing systems.

Without reliable data, local authorities cannot accurately assess levels of need. 

Moreover, while not directly comparable, our findings suggest a worrying potential decline over the last five years in the proportion of local authorities collecting data on TRA. In 2021, 45% of respondents said they collected data on the number of older teenagers (aged 16 and 17) experiencing domestic abuse, compared to 21% in 2026. 

Qualitative insights supported this finding of a lack of robust data collection. Many respondents were upfront that their current data collection for 16- and 17-year-olds was hidden within wider datasets on all legally defined victims of domestic abuse, including adults, and therefore could not be disaggregated. Others explained that where domestic abuse was flagged on their systems, they were unable to distinguish between 16- and 17-year olds who were victims of abuse in their own intimate relationships and those who were victims of abuse by parents or carers within a family context.

Against this backdrop of hidden harm, we also found a considerable disconnect between data collection and the provision of support. While less than one third of local authorities who responded to our request told us that they collect data on the number of teenagers experiencing TRA, only 12% do this as well as commissioning support services for this harm. Moreover, 40% of our respondents said that they commission support services for TRA without being able to collect corresponding data on the number of teenagers affected. This raises significant questions about whether current services are reaching the young people they intend to support, and the wider impact of these services on reducing overall need.

Even where data on the number of teenagers experiencing TRA was collected, the numbers recorded appeared strikingly low. Of those local authorities who were able to provide figures, the median number of 16- to 17-year-olds identified as experiencing abuse within their own relationships (during the 2025-26 financial year) was just 17, while the median figure for 13- to 16-year-olds was 25. The overall numbers of young people identified by local authorities as experiencing TRA will vary according to region, recorded harm type, and overall population numbers, but given wider evidence of the prevalence of abuse in teenage relationships at a national level, these findings suggest significant under or misidentification by local authorities. 

However, this is not only a data collection issue. There remains no consistent or shared definition of TRA at either a national or local level. Just 21% of local authorities reported having a dedicated policy, protocol or written guidance in place on how to identify and respond to children and young people who have experienced abuse within their own relationships. Again, while not directly comparative, our 2021 report found that 30% of local authorities had a policy in place on TRA, suggesting a worrying potential decline in the last five years. 

Where guidance did exist, it was commonly embedded within broader adult domestic abuse policies, and often consisted of little more than a brief acknowledgement that abuse can occur between teenagers. These findings echo what was discovered in 2021, suggesting considerable lack of progress in many local authorities’ ability to effectively identify harm.

Operating without shared understanding

In the absence of a shared definition or clear framework for identifying TRA, professionals are often left relying on existing safeguarding frameworks and responses designed for other forms of harm. Practitioners spoke to the uncertainty this creates. While some felt confident identifying TRA, others described the “blurred lines” between TRA and many other harm types, including exploitation, peer-on-peer abuse, bullying, or wider concerns about emotional wellbeing. A number of professionals commented on how toolkits or resources specific to TRA would aid their ability to identify harm. Tools like a young person’s DASH (domestic abuse, stalking, and ‘honour’-based violence) risk checklist 26  – which support professionals to identify children and young people’s needs in relation to both domestic abuse and TRA – do exist, but we found that many professionals were unaware of them, or were using them inconsistently.

Concerningly, practitioners reported this lack of shared understanding leading to some professionals dismissing or minimising indicators of TRA. Many recalled hearing harmful relationship dynamics described simply as “adolescent development”, “teenage behaviour”, or that young people are simply “experimenting” with relationships and sex. In the worst examples, we heard of cases where professionals had repeatedly not believed a young person who made allegations of rape against their partner. 

Many also reflected on the extent to which professionals rely on ‘known’ safeguarding indicators to identify young people affected by TRA. Practitioners told us that, while experiences of trauma, ACEs, and challenging harmful dynamics are frequently present in the lives of young people affected by TRA, they can also present with few of these ‘traditional’ experiences associated with higher risk or vulnerability.

Yes, we absolutely have that group of young people that have seen domestic abuse in their own lives, that have been removed from one parent where there’s been drug and alcohol use, all those kinds of indicators that we’re used to in terms of the ACEs. But there seems to be a group of young people that bounce those, more so than with the other kind of stuff we deal with.

- Local authority professional working in TRA

Broader concerns about identifying complex harm within young people’s lives – including the role of gendered biases, misconceptions of victimhood, and the process of ‘adultification’ – also apply in the case of TRA. Practitioners reflected on how abuse that is physically or sexually violent can be easier for professionals to recognise, compared to emotional abuse and coercive control – particularly when this takes place online. Moreover, girls displaying distress or emotional dysregulation were more frequently recognised as vulnerable compared to boys exhibiting similar distress through anger. And in many instances, young people, by virtue of experiencing relationship abuse, were often wrongly viewed as older than they seem, and as such, less deserving of support.

Given evidence which suggests that young people may be less likely to disclose abuse for fear of being ignored by professionals, or because professionals are not interested in their lives outside of a family context, 27  these findings paint a worrying picture. It’s apparent that, without a clear and consistent understanding of TRA and its many complex ways of presenting in a young person’s life, teenagers in need of support will remain hidden by and from the profession.

System responses that are not fit for purpose

A consistent theme across existing research, our FOI analysis, and professional interviews is that TRA does not fit neatly within existing systems. Research posits that current systems are ill-equipped to effectively respond to TRA, with existing services often siloed in their approaches and navigating competing harms that leave critical gaps in support. Youth Justice Services can be resistant to criminalising children, while thresholds for social care referrals are high, providing limited access to existing support.¹⁰ Concerns about criminalisation and stigma are also felt by professionals, who lack clarity about how to support the young people who cause relationship harm, as well as their families.¹⁷

Our FOI analysis shows that, in the absence of dedicated frameworks or policies which define TRA, local responses varied considerably. Some local areas managed cases primarily through adult domestic abuse frameworks such as MARACs (multi-agency risk assessment conferences), others exclusively through children’s safeguarding systems, and some a complicated mix of the two.

There was consensus among professionals that adult domestic abuse frameworks are not always sufficient for responding to TRA. However, it was clear that current child protection responses also fall short of fully meeting the needs of those experiencing or causing harm in relationships. Professionals frequently highlighted a tendency to focus on young people’s presenting needs rather than underlying abuse within their relationships. Instead of addressing dynamics like coercion, control or other patterns of abuse, young people being supported by children’s social care were frequently placed on pathways which respond to other presenting concerns, such as poor mental health, harmful sexual behaviour, or peer-on-peer sexual abuse. In these cases, practitioners described young people frequently remaining in abusive relationships without these dynamics ever being fully understood or challenged.

It’s a mixed bag at best I would say [when considering how best to respond to TRA]. I think often the initial approach tends to be kind of child protection … [without necessarily asking] ‘what is the dynamic in the relationship that we ought to be focussing on?’ … sometimes the [young person causing harm] is supported or removed from the question, sometimes the [person harmed] might well be moved, but there’s not a full understanding of the dynamic …

- Local authority professional working in TRA

Additionally, many professionals described how the lack of a clear framework or specific pathway for TRA support has led to disagreements between multi-agency partners about who should ultimately hold responsibility for a young person’s case. Many felt this frequently left individual practitioners holding significant trauma, or managing extremely high need, without knowing how to deliver effective or specialist intervention.

I [can think of] a couple of [cases] where professionals around [the young person] were worried about the dynamic of the relationship, but not quite able to hold that responsibility.

- Practitioner working in a national programme on child abuse and exploitation

Over one third of respondents to our FOI request (38%) said that it was a common occurrence for abusive dynamics in teenage relationships to first be identified through statutory or non-statutory services responding to other safeguarding concerns. This reflects the challenges for professionals working in systems that aren’t set up to respond to TRA, and the inevitabilities of working across siloed harm types.

A patchwork of support

These challenges are ultimately reflected in the support that is available to young people both experiencing and causing harm in teenage relationships. Existing literature highlights gaps in specialist provision for TRA, limited professional confidence, inconsistent education on healthy relationships and consent,³ and a lack of interventions tailored to the specific needs of teenagers. 28

Our FOI analysis similarly suggests that access to support remains highly variable, with provision differing significantly depending on where a young person lives and how their needs are first identified. 59% of the local authorities that responded reported that they do commission or provide specialist support for young people experiencing abuse within their own relationships. However, this headline figure masks considerable variation 
in both type and availability. Analysis of key words in the qualitative responses to this question shows that the most common support types offered by those local authorities with some TRA provision are: 

• children’s independent domestic violence advocates (CHIDVA)
• young people’s independent domestic violence advocates (YIDVAs)
• other advocacy provisions which offer person-centred advocacy, safety planning, and emotional support for young people experiencing domestic abuse (both as victims within a family context and within their own intimate relationships).  

This was closely followed by support that offers one-to-one work with young people, and therapeutic interventions (such as psychoeducation, trauma-informed counselling, or play and art therapy), alongside a wide range of other provision, as shown in figure 2.