UNAIR NEWS – Nowadays, dating is a common thing practiced by all individuals, especially during adolescence. The phenomenon raises more problems in the dating relationship and pre-marital sexual violence is one of them. The types of pre-marital sexual violence are more than just the physical ones, but also psychological violence, for instance, forcing to have non-consensual sexual which mostly happens to female students.

Responding to the issue, the UNAIR Faculty of Psychology (FPsi) held a training on “Expressive writing for agents for pre-marital sexual violence victims” on July 27-28, 2022. The training targeted 47 students, consisting of the Student Council (OSIS) members and class representatives of SMAN 1 Tanggul Jember.

The first material on Adolescent Development was given by Dr. Wiwin Hendriani MSi, followed by Expressive Writing to Maintain Mental Health delivered by Andrea Maria Agniwijaya SPsi. The third material on Peer Counseling Skills as a Modality for Assisting Victims of Pre-marital Sexual Violence was given by Herdina Indrijati MPsi Psikolog and Rhajiv Nur Ilham SPsi.

Herdina Indrijati told UNAIR NEWS that high school students, in general, are adolescents that tend to explore and expand their circle of social interaction. In a broad social interaction, adolescents will find face conflicts, including on sexuality.

“A lot of teenagers are in an unhealthy [dating] relationship where it is common to see many forms of violent coercion,” Herdina said.

Building an expressive writing skill is necessary to help individuals and victims of pre-marital sexual violence, in particular, to express their thoughts and emotions without people knowing and avoid judgments.

“Writing gives more space to individuals to not ignore their feelings. He/she can let out the emotional baggage through their writings. It can be a self-reflection,” she said.

The training aims to improve peer counseling skills, especially in handling sensitive issues like pre-marital sexual violence.

“Peer counseling is important among students, it teaches special methods, such as expressive writing to solve students’ problems at school where the student takes part as the agent of change in helping the school counselor,” she added.

At last, Herdina and the UNAIR FPsi team hoped that the students could gain more knowledge and skills through the training session, contribute as the agent of change, and promote it to the other students. She hoped new agents of change will help solve the problems in adolescence.

“It is important for every student to have peer counseling skills. I hope that students from small towns have equally facilitated to build the skills just like the students in the big cities. No student should feel left out.”

Author: Muhammad Suryadiningrat

Editor: Nuri Hermawan