Domestic Violence Prevention

 "Choices > Interactive" is our series of 15-second video shorts that incorporate A/B interactive decision-branching, empowering users to shape their own journey by making and learning from personal choices. 

Power, coercion and control are the building blocks of abusive behaviors, but can controlling behavior be caused by jealousy, or is it a bit more complicated?  

An interesting paper published in the US National Library of Medicine* reveals that the real culprit behind jealousy is actually distrust. 

It describes the dynamics of jealousy as varying degrees of low self-esteem and insecurity, each associated with varying degrees of distrust.  Relative to intimate partner relationships, jealousy is often caused by the perception of a romantic attraction to a potential rival. The longer low self-esteem and insecure emotions remain unaddressed, the greater the likelihood of jealous behavior.  

Enhanced by today's digital world, distrustful behavior can be magnified by suspicious perceptions of what may be happening privately on an intimate partner’s personal device. Snooping through emails, text messages and social media are all typical symptoms of distrust and can easily cause an escalation of jealous behaviors that ultimately result in physical or non-physical violence or abuse.  

What can you do if you're feeling jealous?