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A personal view on the Netflix hit, Adolescence

    A Warning for Parents, a Teaching Moment, or Just a Drama?

    by City St George’s UoL doctoral researcher Sylwia Wypyska-Kieran

    I finally got around to watching the show. I braced myself for it. I work in this field, and when I sit down to watch TV, I want an escape. And more importantly, I have a son the same age as the main character. I was scared—I know how dramas can pull the right emotional strings to shake you to your core. And this show does exactly that.

    It grips the audience, tapping into their deepest emotions to climb the charts. It spreads fear about youth violence, fueling the anxieties of parents who are already overwhelmed by the mysteries of the online world. At the school gates, friends tell me how upsetting it was. Online, acquaintances share tips on how to ‘better control’ our children, while colleagues publish their expert opinions. Following the discourse surrounding the show is fascinating. But let’s start from the beginning.

    Katie was murdered. In a typical narrative about crime, the show’s focus is on the perpetrator – a 13-year-old boy. This compelling drama has done an amazing job of avoiding the othering of the boy who killed, a common and widely criticised practice in the media. Jamie looks young and innocent. His child-looking face shatters the stereotype of a perpetrator, which is so important for society’s understanding of the reality of everyday violence. We feel for him. We see a child whose life has crumbled. We feel for his parents, we feel their pain, self-blame and disbelief. Together with the detectives, we seek the answers. Why?

    I was expecting the answer to be the manosphere. The trailer and discourse surrounding the show heavily focused on that. The online world of incels and Andrew Tates. I was surprised and rather confused to see that the manosphere was not a direct effect on Jamie’s behaviour. Katie was bullying Jamie, calling him an incel and telling him that no one will ever go out with him.

    How did a drama about a boy who murdered a girl manage to make her seem responsible for his crime? Whilst I pondered whether I misunderstood the implication, I saw a comment online ‘What the boy did was definitely wrong but didn’t it start from the bullying by the girl!!!’.

    The detective’s son pulls his Dad aside and tells him about the secret language of teenagers. I work with some amazing people whose work is all about young people’s participation. Teenagers don’t live on The Planet of the Adolescents, to which we have no access. Yes, adolescence is a distinctive period in people’s lives and we do have to understand the psychosocial challenges young people face. But let’s not align adolescence with violence and let’s not separate ourselves from them. It is harmful to them, to us, and to society as a whole.

    ‘Adolescence made free for schools as Keir Starmer meets creators’, the BBC reports, alongside calls to introduce anti-misogyny lessons. But we can’t teach our way out of misogyny. It seems like a reactive decision made without consultation with experts or young people. The context, complexities and consequences of this decision could be immense.  

    The boys I have spoken to, as part of my research exploring responses to harmful sexual behaviours, have told me that they feel shut down in conversations about relationships and sex. It is consistent with other studies around the topic. They already feel they do not have a space where they can explore and learn about relationships or their identities as men. Will showing this series to them open up a conversation or prove them right? My bet is on the latter. We risk pushing them further into a corner—driving them toward the very spaces where they do feel heard. 

    References

    Youngs, I. (2025) ‘Adolescence hard to watch as a dad, Starmer tells creators ‘, BBC News, 31 March. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx28neprdppo (Accessed: 02 April 2025).

    Gooch, B., Cooke, M. (2025) ‘Schools to run anti-misogyny classes for boys in bid to tackle toxic masculinity’, The Independent, 25 March. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/school-misogyny-classes-boys-toxic-masculinity-adolescence-b2718706.html (Accessed: 04 April 2025)

    King-Hill, S (2025) ‘Adolescence in schools: TV show’s portrayal of one boyhood may do more harm than good when used as a teaching tool’, The Conversation, 02 April. Available at: https://theconversation.com/adolescence-in-schools-tv-shows-portrayal-of-one-boyhood-may-do-more-harm-than-good-when-used-as-a-teaching-tool-253158 (Accessed: 02 April 2025).

    For further information, please contact Sylwia at sylwia.wypyska-kieran@citystgeorges.ac.uk

    Photograph from Adobe Photo Stock subscription

    Upcoming event: Weaving Stories of Peer Sexual Abuse 

      Insights from a youth co-created animation project

      Weaving Stories is a pilot animation project developed by County-Durham arts education company, Changing Relations, and funded via the VISION research consortium through the Small Projects Fund.

      The animation was co-produced with Secondary-aged students, survivors of peer sexual abuse, and an artistic team, to amplify young people’s voices on the theme of unwanted sexual behaviour and the culture that enables it. The students and young survivors shaped every aspect of the animation.

      An interdisciplinary Steering Group of academic researchers, creative practitioners, and child protection and sexual violence specialists from a North East school and Rape Crisis centre, were also involved in the project.

      With this animation and associated school based learning programme, Changing Relations seeks to influence knowledge, behaviour, and institutional change using the impactful animation as stimulus for reflection. Following this pilot project, VISION and Changing Relations have organised a one-hour webinar for UK policymakers and practitioners to:

      • Watch the co-created animation (20 minutes)
      • Hear young people’s perspectives on the key themes and co-production approach
      • Explore the animation’s potential impact on school cultures, disclosure, help-seeking, and victim-blaming attitudes
      • Engage in academic-informed analysis of trauma-informed safeguarding and youth-centred approaches to sexual violence prevention
      • Gain practical insights on using creative participatory approaches to engage young people in conversations about violence and abuse
      • Consider actionable recommendations for policy and practice
      • Contribute your reflections

      This webinar will be of interest to a wide range of professionals who work with adolescents and / or in violence-prevention. Educators, social workers, academics, and third sector, central and local government policy analysts and researchers in particular may be interested.

      There are two dates providing the option to choose between a more practice or policy oriented session:

      • Thursday 8th May 1-2pm for policymakers
      • Wednesday 14th May 3-4pm for practitioners

      Speakers and facilitators

      • Lisa Davis, Managing Director, Changing Relations
      • Kate Gorman, Creative Producer and Artistic Director, Changing Relations
      • Kimberly Cullen, Knowledge Exchange Manager, UKPRP VISION research consortium, City St George’s UoL

      Webinar registration

      To register for free for either the 8th or 14th of May, please visit our page on Ticket Tailor.

      The webinar will be on Microsoft Teams and you will receive the link on the day you choose to attend.

      For further information, please contact VISION_Management_Team@citystgeorges.ac.uk

      The impact and risk factors of adolescent domestic abuse: A rapid systematic review

        As a phenomenon, abusive behavior between adolescents in intimate relationships remains relatively invisible, due in part to the persistent yet unfounded assumption that domestic abuse is something that occurs between adults. There is an emerging body of evidence indicating that both victimization and perpetration in intimate partner relationships can and do occur well before adulthood.

        This review seeks to improve understandings of intimate partner abuse between adolescents, focusing in particular on younger adolescents below the age of 16 and the impacts and risk and protective factors.

        VISION researchers Dr Ruth Weir, Dr Olumide Adisa and Dr Niels Blom, with their collaborators, conducted a rapid systematic review by searching three electronic databases (PsycInfo, Embase, and Social Sciences Citation Index). The team utilized pre-existing systematic reviews to identify relevant primary studies. Findings of the included studies were described and summarized using narrative synthesis.

        Seventy-nine studies were identified for inclusion. Synthesis of the findings of these studies identified five categories of risk and protective factors, including bullying and parental intimate partner violence, social and cultural factors, school and neighborhood environment and health and wellbeing. However, the review also identified a gap of qualitative research and a lack of attention to how ADA intersects with cultural factors, gender differences, criminalization, and poor mental health. Many of the studies report on school-based settings, limiting understanding of the role of neighborhood factors in prevention, protection and recovery. Participatory research on help-seeking behaviors of adolescents is rare.

        The review synthesized risk and protective factors associated with ADA, especially those occurring between younger adolescents. It highlighted the complex interplay and overlap between using and experiencing violence and abuse and the need for systematic research to inform the development of advocacy, interventions and prevention that is right for young people.

        Highlights from the VISION ADA rapid review: Gaps, limitations & considerations for future research

        • Little recent academic interest on ADA in the UK
        • Focus in existing global literature on physical or sexual violence but less so on coercive control or emotional / psychological abuse
        • Lack of systematic examination of long-term consequences of ADA on wellbeing
        • Lack of intersectional analysis (ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, etc)
        • Little exploration of adolescents’ help-seeking behaviours and attitudes to different kinds of possible support
        • Research design limitations

        To download the paper: Adolescent Domestic Abuse and Its Consequences: A Rapid Systematic Review | Journal of Family Violence

        To cite: Weir, R., Adisa, O., Blom, N. et al. Adolescent Domestic Abuse and Its Consequences: A Rapid Systematic Review. J Fam Viol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-025-00813-4

        For more information on this rapid review, please contact Ruth at ruth.weir@city.ac.uk

        To view and / or download the list of systematic reviews included in this paper:

        SRs included in Weir ADA journal articleDownload

        Further ADA research across the VISION consortium:

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