Dating Abuse Prevention in Teens of Moms with Domestic Violence Protection Orders

• NCJ Number: 240098
• Author(s): Vangie A. Foshee, Ph.D.; Kim Dixon, M.S.W.; Ling Yin-Chang, M.P.H.; Susan Ennett, Ph.D.; Beth Moracco, Ph.D.; J. Michael Bowling, Ph.D.; Jennifer L. Moss, B.A.
• Date Published: October 2012
• Length: 405 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2008-WG-BX-0003
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)

Annotation

This study developed an intervention to prevent dating abuse among 12-15 year old teens exposed to domestic violence in their homes, and it conducted a small randomized trial that piloted tested procedures that would be used in a future large randomized efficacy trial of the program.

Abstract

Research was conducted to adapt an evidence-based family program for preventing teen dating abuse, "Families for Safe Date (FSD)." FSD consists of six booklets of information and interactive activities mailed to study families for use at home at convenient times. This was followed by health-educator phone calls 2 weeks after each mailing. After an initial adaptation of the booklets, 28 women who had been victims of domestic violence but no longer lived with their abusers and who had daughters ages 12 to 15 (n=35) participated in a series of focus groups and interviews in order to obtain feedback on the adapted booklets. The current report describes the theoretical and conceptual framework of "Moms and Teens for Safe Dates," along with results from the formative research called the "Program Adaptation Study." These materials include 10 themes identified from the focus groups and interviews. The material may be useful for others intervening to prevent dating abuse among teens exposed to domestic violence. It also reports results from piloting the recruitment procedures. In addition, this report presents lessons learned from the pilot program in the areas of recruitment, administration, data collection, and measures that will reform the methods of the randomized efficacy trial. Further, findings are presented from the baseline questionnaire that characterizes aspects of the teens' exposure to domestic violence, and the prevalence of multiple types of dating abuse victimization and perpetration among these teens is reported, along with the prevalence of bullying, sexual harassment, and peer aggression, victimization, and perpetration. 51 references and appended MTSD baseline mother and adolescent questionnaires