Ask any child what their favorite movie is and there’s a good chance they’ll name a Disney movie like Beauty and the Beast or Aladdin.
But experts believe these movies give them the wrong idea of what a healthy relationship looks like.
In “Aladdin”, “Cinderella”, “Snow White” and “Sleeping Beauty” it is about a girl who is rescued by a “handsome prince”, while the protagonist takes Princess Jasmine away from her limited life in the palace.
Researchers at the University of Exeter conducted a survey of teenagers and found that young people have a desire to learn skills that will help them improve their relationships at school.
Study author Simon Benham-Clark said: “Respondents emphasized the importance of teaching skills such as communication, empathy, respect, conflict resolution, and organizing and ending conflicts. relationship in a respectful and safe manner. Our research shows that schools need improved support to make relationships work – develop education, including expertise and resources, refer students to external sources of help, the models of positive relationship behavior must be developed, integrated and developed in all curricula at the national level and reflected in the spirit of the school.
For the study, published in the journal BMC Public Health, researchers conducted focus groups with 24 youth aged 14 to 18 years.
This includes asking them questions to generate discussion about relationships and to teach them about relationships.
They also interviewed 10 relationship experts and asked them for their opinions on what constitutes a strong relationship and how best to teach older children about it.
All interactions were recorded, and the researchers then identified common themes emerging among the youth and the professionals and compared the two.
Many, especially Disney, have commented on the influence of fairy tales on how they view relationships.
One participant said: “I think it creates a pretty toxic image that the woman is weak and needs to be rescued by the man, and it creates this kind of toxic masculinity.”
They all said that good relationship education would help them, especially lessons on how to manage the different stages of a relationship, end it, and deal with consequences.
They are particularly interested in learning to communicate and resolve conflicts.
And young people and professionals realize that schools can play an important role here.
Co-author Dr Jan Ewing said: “While young families are seen as the main source of learning about healthy relationships, there is clear support for the role of schools in increasing these, as not all family shows healthy relationships.”
Young people said they would be happy to start this kind of education at elementary school age, starting with nurturing friendships before moving on to romantic relationships.
This is thought to be especially important for children who have argued with their parents or exhibited other unhealthy behaviors.
However, they also realized that not everything can be learned in the classroom, the young people said that learning from the family should come first.
They also caution that learning lessons about romantic relationships may put some young people under pressure to pursue them before they are ready.
Being in a ‘stressful’ relationship is linked to alcohol abuse, obesity, childhood adversity and poor mental health, according to researchers. Signs of a difficult relationship are dissatisfaction with the relationship, regrets, regular arguments, and thoughts of separation or divorce.
As a result, they concluded that teaching children how relationships work from an early age can reduce these conditions.
It will also help them reject the idea that the Disneyfied couple is a normal or ideal relationship model.
Source: Daily Mail
Source: Arabic RT
