“ F*ck This, I Want to Get My Life Back ”: Examining Australian Young Women's Experiences and Expressions of Resistance to Intimate Partner Violence

Expanding understandings of youth intimate partner violence (IPV) beyond a risk-and-oppression paradigm, this study explored the way that resistance to IPV was expressed during 12 young women's relationships. This exploratory research study, in Victoria, Australia, was undertaken using visual ethnography—combining qualitative interviews and arts-based methods. This study found that the ways which young women enacted resistance to IPV occurred differently across five core sequential phases: relationship onset; escalation; survival; relationship termination; and recovery/healing. This research raises important implications for policy, service responses and social work practice, including the need for targeted intervention at different points of young women's experiences.