Dating Violence Prevention for Juvenile Justice Girls

Research is urgently needed to rigorously test a skills-based intervention for dating violence prevention among juvenile justice girls. Court-involved, non-incarcerated (CINI) girls represent a particularly high-risk group for dating violence exposure. This is due to the multiple risk factors they possess that have demonstrated associations with teen dating violence outcomes in other high-risk adolescent female populations. Despite the critical need for these young women to learn strategies that offset their heightened risk for involvement in coercive romantic relationships, no such evidence-based interventions exist for this population. The goal of the current study is to establish the efficacy of Date SMART (K23MH086328), a theoretically-driven skills-based intervention, in reducing dating violence, sexual risk behavior, and delinquency among girls in the juvenile justice system. Pilot data reveal that girls randomized to the Date SMART intervention spend significantly fewer days in violent relationships compared to girls randomized to the comparison condition. They also show improvements in condom use at last sex and reductions in delinquency. Moreover, the risk profile of adolescent girls who participated in the pilot trial is remarkably similar to the profile of adolescent girls involved in the juvenile justice system. Thus Date SMART is uniquely suited for CINI girls. Despite the promise of Date SMART, the time lag from pilot testing to efficacy testing and final dissemination activities is protracted, as researchers fail to consider questions of effectiveness early on. Hybrid designs that retain core components of efficacy trials (randomization, controlled conditions) and essential elements of effectiveness research (e.g., participant diversity; standardized training procedures, attention to cost) can reduce time to implementation in the real world. As such, we plan to test the efficacy of Date SMART on dating violence, sexual risk, and delinquency among 250 court-involved, non-incarcerated girls. We will also gather effectiveness data from key stakeholders to determine how best to implement the program, train staff, and predict the cost of the program within the juvenile court. CINI girls, ages 14-17 (N= 12 juveniles for Phase I Intervention Run-Through; N=250 for Phase II RCT study) will be recruited from the Rhode Island Family Court and Probation Departments and randomized to either the Date SMART (active) intervention (n=125) or a Health Promotion (control) condition (n=125). In Phase I (12 juveniles will be recruited to complete the Intervention Run-Through and research assessment once to allow testing of RCT intervention and assessment procedures prior to the RCT phase. In Phase II, 250 juveniles will be recruited and randomized at baseline and then re-assessed at 3, 6, 9 and 12 month post-intervention follow-ups.

Dating Violence Perpetration among Juvenile Justice Youth: The Role of Social, Behavioral, and Ecological Processes

Dating aggression among youth involved with the juvenile justice system (JJS) is an area in great need of innovation. Not only because of the pernicious course of negative impacts on both adolescents and their partners, but also because of the intersection with issues ranging from custody to delinquency to trafficking. To date, knowledge in the field of violence prevention has been limited by reliance on traditional, self-report instruments that are not designed to capture risk factors for dating aggression with precision and in real-time. Furthermore, research has not caught up with the growing influence of online social networks (OSN) on relationship functioning. Thus, we will employ a novel combination of online social networking (OSN) data, ecological momentary assessment (EMA), computer-based, and interview methodologies to assess the phenomenology of dating aggression among JJS-involved youth. We will recruit a sample of 300 court-involved, non-incarcerated adolescents (ages 14-18) in current dating relationships from the Rhode Island Family Court. Adolescents will complete a baseline assessment and participate in laboratory tasks, followed by a four-week EMA protocol on their mobile devices. At 4-week follow-up, youth will return devices, permit download of OSN for the prior 4 weeks, as well as complete self-report assessments. Understanding the interplay of temporally linked daily assessments and conflictual interactions prior to and following dating aggression is crucial, both to document the phenomenology of these behaviors among JJS- involved youth and to lay the groundwork for future interventions that will be able to incorporate real-time user data with personalized feedback to offset the development of violent episodes in vivo.

Project STRONG: A Dyadic, Web-based Intervention to Prevent Dating Violence among Middle School Boys

Dating violence first emerges in early adolescence and is associated with negative impacts including declines in academic performance, mental health, and psychosocial functioning. Despite broad calls for primary prevention, few programs with demonstrated efficacy exist. Further, the vast majority of existing programs are designed to be delivered in small mixed-gender groups and do not capitalize on the importance of parents in modeling and influencing the choices their child makes in their future romantic relationships. Further, there is a dearth of programs designed specifically for males despite growing research that has identified gender differences in risk factors for DV. To address these gaps, STRONG was developed as a web-based intervention for early adolescent males and their parent/guardian to complete together. The curriculum is grounded in Developmental Assets Theory which asserts that family support, knowledge, values development, and social skills are necessary for healthy development and offset the emergence of risk behavior. The curriculum is also informed by the DV literature which suggests that emotion regulation and communication skills are key mechanisms involved in DV behaviors. STRONG has been previously piloted with parent-son dyads (7th and 8th grade males) and demonstrates promising impact on key outcomes and target mechanisms. The proposed project builds on these initial findings by testing the efficacy of STRONG with a sample of 340 parent-son dyads on the primary outcome of adolescent self-reported dating violence. We will also evaluate the impact on other violence-related measures (e.g., attitudes, aggression, discipline problems, other risk behaviors) as well as on the proposed mediators of these effects, emotion regulation and parent-adolescent communication. We will implement a Hybrid 1 design that expands upon our efficacy trial by exploring critical factors involved in future dissemination of the program, such as challenges to implementation and cost considerations. By testing the efficacy of STRONG in tandem with future dissemination questions, we are able to shorten the time-lag often observed in bringing evidence-based interventions to the community.