A Theater Intervention to Prevent Teen Dating Violence for Mexican-American Middle School Students

Previous research indicates that teen dating violence (TDV) is more common among sexual minority than heterosexual adolescents, with approximately half of female sexual minority adolescents (SMA) endorsing TDV victimization in the last year. In samples of adolescents without regard to sexual orientation, exposure to violent pornography is associated with TDV, but this relationship has not been assessed in female SMA. The current study sample consisted of 10th-grade high school students aged 14–17 who identified as cisgender females ( N = 1,276). Data were collected from a baseline survey prior to the delivery of a sexual assault prevention intervention. Female SMA had 2.54 times the odds (95%CI [1.75, 3.69]) of being exposed to violent pornography and 2.53 times the odds (95%CI [1.72, 3.70)]) of TDV exposure compared to heterosexual girls. Exposure to violent pornography was not associated with involvement in TDV among female SMA, controlling for episodic heavy drinking ( aOR = 2.25, 95%CI [0.88,6.22]). Given the relatively higher rates of violent pornography and TDV exposure among female SMA compared to heterosexual girls, it is critical that sex education curricula address these experiences and meet the needs of adolescents of all sexual orientations. Future research can assess how these TDV interventions might be tailored for female SMA. Although we did not find that exposure to violent pornography was associated with TDV among female SMA, these investigations should be replicated with larger data sets, given that the association between exposure to violent pornography and engagement in TDV was in the expected direction.

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Bystander Intervention Efficacy to Reduce Teen Dating Violence Among High School Youth Who Did and Did Not Witness Parental Partner Violence: A Path Analysis of A Cluster RCT

Journal of Family Violence ◽

10.1007/s10896-021-00297-y ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Annelise Mennicke ◽

Heather M. Bush ◽

Candace J. Brancato ◽

Ann L. Coker

Keyword(s):

High School ◽

High School Students ◽

Dating Violence ◽

Partner Violence ◽

Intervention Program ◽

Teen Dating Violence ◽

Bystander Intervention ◽

School Students ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Teen Dating

AbstractYouth who witness parental intimate partner violence (IPV) are at increased risk of teen dating violence (DV). This analysis of secondary data investigated whether a bystander intervention program, Green Dot, was effective at reducing physical and psychological DV victimization and perpetration among youth who had and had not previously witnessed parental IPV. The parent RCT assigned 13 schools to control and 13 schools to the Green Dot intervention. Responses from 71,797 individual surveys that were completed by high school students were analyzed across three phases of a 5-year cluster randomized control trial. Multigroup path analyses revealed that students in intervention schools who witnessed parental IPV had a reduction in psychological (p < .001) and physical DV (p < .01) perpetration and psychological DV victimization (p < .01) in Phase 2 of the intervention, while those who did not witness parental IPV had a significant reduction in psychological DV victimization (p < .01). Individuals in the intervention received more training (p < .001), which was associated with lower levels of violence acceptance (p < .001). Violence acceptance was positively associated with DV victimization and perpetration (p < .001), especially for individuals who previously witnessed parental IPV. Green Dot is an effective program at reducing DV victimization and perpetration among the high-risk group of youth who previously witnessed parental IPV, largely operating through violence acceptance norms. This underscores the bystander intervention approach as both a targeted and universal prevention program.

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Teen Dating Violence Victimization Among High School Students: A Multilevel Analysis of School-Level Risk Factors

Journal of School Health ◽

10.1111/josh.12538 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 87 (9) ◽

pp. 696-704 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Elizabeth M. Parker ◽

Sarah Lindstrom Johnson ◽

Katrina J. Debnam ◽

Adam J. Milam ◽

Catherine P. Bradshaw

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

High School ◽

High School Students ◽

Multilevel Analysis ◽

Dating Violence ◽

Teen Dating Violence ◽

School Level ◽

School Students ◽

Violence Victimization ◽

Teen Dating

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Substance Use and Disparities in Teen Dating Violence Victimization by Sexual Identity Among High School Students

Prevention Science ◽

10.1007/s11121-019-01049-7 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 21 (3) ◽

pp. 398-407 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Whitney L. Rostad ◽

Heather B. Clayton ◽

Lianne Fuino Estefan ◽

Michelle M. Johns

Keyword(s):

High School ◽

Substance Use ◽

High School Students ◽

Sexual Identity ◽

Dating Violence ◽

Teen Dating Violence ◽

School Students ◽

Violence Victimization ◽

Teen Dating

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Associations Between Classroom Normative Climate and the Perpetration of Teen Dating Violence Among Secondary School Students

Journal of Interpersonal Violence ◽

10.1177/0886260519888207 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 088626051988820 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Laura Beckmann ◽

Marie Christine Bergmann ◽

Yvonne Krieg ◽

Sören Kliem

Keyword(s):

At Risk ◽

Dating Violence ◽

Teen Dating Violence ◽

Lower Saxony ◽

School Students ◽

Related Factors ◽

Individual Level ◽

Teen Dating ◽

Ninth Grade Students ◽

Classroom Level

The aim of this study was to investigate how classroom normative climate regarding the perpetration of teen dating violence (TDV) was related to adolescents’ self-reported perpetration of (verbal/emotional, threatening, relational, physical, and sexual) violence within romantic relationships in the previous 12 months. Based on Theory of Normative Conduct, we hypothesized that higher classroom levels of TDV perpetration were associated with a higher likelihood of individual TDV perpetration. Data were drawn from a large survey of ninth-grade students conducted in the state of Lower Saxony, Germany ( n = 10,638). From this sample, an analysis sample of n = 4,351 students at risk was drawn (mean age: 15.0, SD: 0.76; 46.6% male). More than half (54.8%) of the at-risk sample reported engagement in any form of TDV within the previous 12 months, whereby rates varied considerably by the dimension of TDV. Controlling for a range of risk factors on the classroom level (proportion of students dependent on social welfare, proportion of students with migration background) and individual level (exposure to family violence, sociodemographic characteristics, TDV victimization, and peer- and school-related factors), regression analyses showed that higher rates of classroom-level TDV perpetration were positively related to individual verbal/emotional TDV perpetration. This pattern of results was observable across all dimensions of TDV. Furthermore, gender-specific patterns of TDV perpetration were observable: Girls were more affected by classroom levels of verbal/emotional and physical TDV than boys, while boys were more affected by classroom levels of relational and sexual TDV. Results highlight the role of the wider peer context in shaping adolescent dating experiences and specifically point to the relevance of the classroom ecology for the socialization of dating violence in adolescents.

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