Violence
Conditions
Brief summary
Dating and sexual violence are significant public health concerns occurring on a continuum of severity across the lifespan, with serious consequences to victims and society. The present research advances the science of prevention by rigorously evaluating a comprehensive social norms marketing campaign to promote community-level change in dating and sexual violence in middle schools. Partnership between researchers and a CDC Rape Prevention and Education Program (RPE) funded agency is a core feature of this work, and aims to build community capacity to implement and evaluate violence prevention efforts, and promote the subsequent uptake of social norms marketing campaigns as a strategy for reducing dating and sexual violence among youth.
Detailed description
In a group cluster trial, a comprehensive, tailored, data-based social norms marketing campaign that addresses misperceptions of: 1) the acceptability of dating and sexual violence; 2) gender roles; 3) sexual activity; 4) sexual communication/consent; 5) support for victims; and 6) bystander intervention will be evaluated among middle schools. Poster messaging will be paired with several systematic efforts to diffuse program content through the community, including a Lunch and Learn Teacher Training, Social Norms Video, Teacher Workbook, Parent Mailing, and Parent Information Session. A member of the researcher-practitioner team, designated as a School Resource Provider, will oversee campaign implementation in partnership with a teacher champion. The Resource Provider will also track campaign intensity, assess campaign credibility through intercept interviews with teachers and students, work with teachers to infuse messaging into classroom activities, and assist the teacher champion with addressing kick-back to the campaign. Outcome assessments will be completed by teachers, administrators and students. Towards the goal of exploring the role of other environmental factors as moderators of program effects, school administrators will assess their community readiness to develop and implement school dating and sexual violence prevention policy, in general, and social norms marketing, in particular. A neighborhood scan will also be conducted to estimate the density of nearby outlets associated with gender-based personal violence.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALSocial Norms Marketing Campaign
This poster based marketing campaign is designed to correct inaccurate perceptions of norms regarding violence.
OTHERCapacity Building
Schools will participate in teacher training and parent training.
Sponsors
Brown University
Lifespan
Study design
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
10 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Student at a middle school or teacher/administrator at a middle school * Provide student assent and parental consent as specified in protocol or provide adult consent for study participation
Exclusion criteria
• None
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Dating Violence Perpetration | Over 6 months | Rates of dating violence perpeptration |
| Sexual Violence Victimization | Over 6 months | Rates of sexual violence victimization |
| Dating Violence Victimization | Over 6 months | Rates of dating violence victimization |
| Sexual Violence Perpetration | Over 6 months | Rates of sexual violence perpetration |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Bystander Intervention | Over 6 months | Rates of bystander intervention |
| Attitudes Towards Violence | Change from baseline to 6 months | Attitudes towards violence scale |
Other
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Teacher Engagement in Bystander Intervention | Over 6 months | Rates of bystander intervention behavior among teachers |
| Perceptions of Social Norms | Change from baseline to 6 months | A series of items were developed for the purpose of the present study to assess student perceptions of peer norms regarding dating and sexual violence. Items are scored on a range of 0% - 100% to indicate the percent of peers within the school that would endorse each item. Scores for each item will be examined individually. Positive scores on this measure are indicated when respondents perceive a greater number of their peers would endorse healthy behavior. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed