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Healthy Relationships

Healthy relationships are built on trust, intimacy, communication, respect, safety and independence. In a healthy relationship, you should feel safe expressing yourself and your needs, and should never have to worry whether the other person will harm you or force you into something you don’t want to do.

Behaviour by a current or former intimate partner that causes physical, sexual or psychological harm is called Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). IPV is prohibited under St. Lawrence College’s Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Prevention Policy.

Learning how to identify, build, and maintain healthy relationships is very important to help prevent IPV.

Curious if your relationship is healthy, or just want to know more about what a healthy relationship looks like? Check out the quizzes and resources available at LoveIsRespect.org.

The following statistics show why IPV is such a pressing issue, particularly among young people:

  • In Kingston from 2014 to 2021, the highest rate of victims of police-reported sexual assault was youth aged 12 to 17, followed by young adults aged 18 to 24.
  • More than 45% of teens aged 15 to 17 have experienced dating violence. According to self-reported data, emotional abuse is the most common form of violence (45%), followed by physical violence (10%) and sexual violence (7%).
  • The experience of intimate partner violence as a teen has been linked to negative outcomes in later life, including an increased risk of experiencing IPV again in adulthood.
  • 1 in 3 youth report experiencing physical, psychological and/or cyber teen dating violence. Among teen girls, 7% report experiencing sexual abuse by a dating partner.
  • “Nonbinary youth report significantly higher rates of all forms of adolescent dating violence victimization than their cisgender peers,” with psychological victimization being the highest (42%), followed by cyber (32.8%) and physical (25.6%) victimization.
  • Indigenous and Northern young women (66%) and men (54%) between the ages of 15 and 24 report significantly higher rates of IPV.
  • Systemic oppression places marginalized groups at a higher risk of experiencing IPV, including Black and racialized youth, youth living in poverty, youth with a disability, Indigenous youth, and 2SLGBTQIA+ youth.

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Content adapted from resources developed by the Canadian Women’s Foundation and the Kingston Frontenac Anti-Violence Coordinating Committee (KFACC).