Computer game helps teenagers discuss sexual coercion

Ahead of the Family Planning Association’s Sexual Health Week, with the theme ‘XES – We Can’t Go Backwards’ (17^th-23^rd Sept), Coventry University are expanding their ongoing research into this sensitive subject with the launch of a new innovative project this autumn.

Developed by Coventry University’s Studies in Adolescent Sexual Health (SASH) group, the new computer game called PRE:PARe – Positive Relationships: Eliminating coercion and Pressure in Adolescent Relationships – will be rolled out to schools in the coming months.

The free to access (for schools in Coventry and Warwickshire) online game has been designed for use with young people in sex education lessons – dealing with the issues of pressure and sexual coercion. Helping them to understand, through a variety of scenarios, what coercion is and how it occurs in day to day life, such as within relationships and through online interactions.

The game was created by the Serous Games Institute, with direct input from health professionals, teachers and young people themselves in the Coventry and Warwickshire area and is funded by the Health Innovation and Education Cluster.

Katherine Brown, Health Psychologist at the SASH Research Group and Reader in eHealth & Wellbeing Interventions (joint with NHS Warwickshire) said: “Sexual health can be a difficult topic to discuss with young people but it is essential to address issues when they arise. The game we have developed can help teenagers to deal with the issue of sexual coercion – something that is much needed by schools and young people.”