Turning the page after a love disappointment is never easy. If you are a teenager, even less. In New Zealand they know this and have decided to elevate youth heartbreaks to a matter of State, placing them in the focus of a public program endowed with a million-dollar budget that simply seeks to teach its younger citizens how to digest breakups. All with a more ambitious purpose: “Promote safe, positive and egalitarian relationships”, free of “harmful speeches”.
The name of the initiative: “Love Better”, of course.
How to deal with a breakup. In life there are trances of all colors. First loves are among the good ones. The heartbreaks, which are also first, among the bad ones. The objective of the New Zealand authorities with “Love Better” is to support their young people during the hardship of breakups with an ultimate purpose that goes beyond the blow that means the end of a relationship. What its authors want is to educate in the long term, to sow a seed that allows “to develop positive attitudes and for life to face pain.”
“By supporting young people through these formative experiences, we can positively impact the way they approach future relationships,” reasons Priyanca Radhkrishnan, Deputy Minister for Social Development and Employment, who presents the initiative as “a campaign of Primary prevention”.
Beyond the teens. “Love Better” therefore focuses on young people, but its ultimate goal goes further. What it seeks —stresses the New Zealand Executive— is to “promote safe, positive and egalitarian relationships”. “The goal is to interrupt and change harmful discourses and behaviors around relationships that are universal and affect all young people,” they settle.
If the focus is on adolescence, it is because it is the learning stage, in which one deals with the first crushes… and also the first disappointments. “It is a period in which our beliefs and attitudes about sex, relationships and gender can be challenged or reinforced,” argues the Ministry of Social Development and Employment, which claims the pioneering nature of the initiative.
With the figures very present. It’s not all rhetoric. The New Zealand authorities handle some starting data, including a striking one: some time ago their experts took to the streets to ask young people how they dealt with sentimental breakups. Of those surveyed, the majority, 68%, acknowledged having suffered bad experiences that went beyond the expected pain of the trance.
Among those consequences detected by the experts included self-harm, depression, substance abuse, risky sexual behavior, violence, coercion, blackmail, jealous and vindictive behavior, and even bullying. “More than 1,200 young people across the country have told us they need support to deal with early experiences of love and pain. Breakups were identified as a common challenge,” explains Radhakrishnan: “We want to support our young people.”
Put an end to a “shameful” reality. The Government’s gaze goes beyond adolescence or high school romances. The nation suffers from one of the highest rates of domestic violence in first world countries, a serious social problem that has led its authorities to adopt other pioneering measures, such as the one approved in July 2018: a work “permit” of 10 paid days to make it easier for victims to get help without jeopardizing their jobs.
“This approach has not been tested by any government around the world. New Zealand has disgraceful statistics on family and sexual violence and we need innovative approaches to break the cycle,” says Radhakirshnan. “Love Better” is in fact linked to another government strategy, Te Aorerekura, announced at the end of 2021 to eradicate this type of behavior.
And what is your strategy? The “Love Better” campaign will have a budget of 6.4 million New Zealand dollars, equivalent to about 3.7 million euros, and is part of the 2020-2022 Youth Action Plan. The initiative targets around 850,000 young people between the ages of 12 and 24.
The campaign will be divided into several phases, during which young people will be helped to recognize and channel their pain towards positive attitudes or normalize and end the stigma of asking for help. “‘Love Better’ asks young people to ‘appropriate their feelings’. It is primary prevention”, they emphasize from the Executive.
Images: Eliott Reyna (Unsplash) and Alexis Brown (Unsplash)
On Magnet: The US fashion app relies on teens sending each other compliments