Dating violence: evaluating an prevention program

• Grant number: 13/01611-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: June 01, 2013
• End date: March 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Cognitive Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Lúcia Cavalcanti de Albuquerque Williams
• Grantee: Sidnei Rinaldo Priolo Filho
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Dating violence is a major public health problem in many countries. The main prevention efforts are being made in United States and Canada, whereas in Brazil there are only two epidemiological published papers and one qualitative research related to this theme. Dating violence prevention in adolescence may prevent a diverse set of problems in adult life. This project has the objective of developing and evaluating a dating violence intervention program to Brazilian adolescents in High School. It is expected that the program will be able to diminish the prevalence of physical and psychological violence the adolescents perform and suffer in their dating relationships. The instruments to be used are the CTS-2, AUDIT and the Social Problems-Solving Inventory at the beginning and the end of the intervention after a one year follow-up. All these instruments are validated to Brazilian adolescent population. Two classrooms are going to be randomly designed to act as control and another will be the experimental group. The intervention is going to take place once a week during four months. The control group will also receive the intervention program. Data will be analyzed comparing experimental group with itself and with control group in regard to all instruments. A reduction of aggressive behaviors in regards to dating is expected, as well a rise of problem-solving skills without the use of violence among participants. (AU)