Adolescents’ Perceptions of Healthy Relationships: Young people in Bulgaria

From January 2017 to March 2019 the Adolescent Perceptions of Healthy Relationships (APRH) project took place in Bulgaria. This youth lead research investigated young people’s ideas about and experiences with (sexual) relationships. A group of around 40 Youth Peer Researchers (YPRs) were trained in two cities (Sofia and Aytos). They designed research questions and surveys themselves, and conducted both a quantitative and qualitative research amongst around 1300 of their peers. The YPR’s looked into various aspects of relationships in different settings, such as the family, peers/friends and the school. They unpacked concepts like trust, respect, equality, dominance and researched topics such as violence, sexuality and online behavior.