Trial of a Middle School Coach Gender Violence Prevention Program

January 12, 2019 updated by: Elizabeth Miller, University of Pittsburgh

Cluster-Randomized Trial of a Middle School Coach Gender Violence Prevention Program

This cluster-randomized school-based study will examine the effectiveness of a program for the primary prevention of perpetration of teen dating violence and sexual violence among middle school male athletes. Engaging men and boys in preventing violence against women and girls is recognized by major global health organizations as a critical public health strategy. "Coaching Boys into Men" is a theory- and evidence based program intended to alter gender norms that foster teen dating violence/sexual violence perpetration, promote bystander intervention, and reduce teen dating violence/sexual violence perpetration. Coaches receive a 60-minute training and biweekly check-in from a violence prevention advocate to administer the intervention to their athletes via 12 mini-lessons conducted weekly throughout a sport season. In a randomized trial of program effectiveness among high school athletes (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CE001561-01, PI Miller), male athletes receiving the program demonstrated increased positive bystander intervention behaviors and less verbal abuse perpetration compared to controls. This project seeks to test the effectiveness of this program with younger male athletes in grades 6-8.The innovations are three-fold: (1) testing the efficacy of a novel teen dating violence/sexual violence prevention program for middle school male athletes; (2) training athletic coaches in Teen Dating Violence/Sexual Violence prevention thus implementing primary prevention that does not rely on teachers or classroom time; and (3) integrating the goal of changing gender norms with the technique of a bystander intervention approach to reduce teen dating violence/sexual violence prevention. The experimental design involves a 2-armed cluster randomized- controlled trial in 41 middle schools (38 clusters) in Pennsylvania. Schools will be randomly assigned to either intervention or control (standard coaching) condition. Coaches in intervention schools will receive Coaching Boys into Men training. Baseline surveys will be collected for all intervention and control site athletes entering grades 6-8 at the start of each sports seasons across Year 1 (Time 1; N= 973 athletes). Follow up surveys will be collected at the end of each sports season (Time 2). All participating athletes will be re-surveyed 12 months after baseline (Time 3).

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

973

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Pennsylvania
      • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, 15213
        • Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

11 years and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

School eligibility:

Urban and suburban middle schools in the Pittsburgh, PA region with athletics program

Athlete eligibility:

Ages 11-14 (grades 6-8), student at a participating middle school, participating in an athletic program led by coach participating in the research study

Exclusion Criteria:

School Eligibility:

Middle schools not in the Pittsburgh area

Athlete eligibility:

Outside age range, not participating on a sports team at the middle school in which they are enrolled

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control School
Control schools (where the coaches do not receive the "Coaching Boys into Men" training until following academic year ;wait list control)
Experimental: Intervention School

Intervention schools (where coaches receive the Coaching Boys into Men training at start of each sports season).

"Coaching Boys into Men" program consists of 60 minute training for high school coaches led by a violence prevention advocate to introduce coaches to the rational for Coaching Boys into Men and the Coaching Boys into Men Coaches Kit. The coaches use this Coaching Boys into Men toolkit to provide weekly discussions with their athletes (generally 10-15 minute mini-sessions) throughout their athletic season (11 weeks). Discussion topics include how to prevent disrespectful and harmful behaviors towards women and girls and how to promote healthy choices and relationships among youth.
Behavioral: "Coaching Boys into Men" program
"Coaching Boys into Men" program consists of 60 minute training for high school coaches led by a violence prevention advocate to introduce coaches to the rational for Coaching Boys into Men and the Coaching Boys into Men Coaches Kit. The coaches use this Coaching Boys into Men toolkit to provide weekly discussions with their athletes (generally 10-15 minute mini-sessions) throughout their athletic season (11 weeks). Discussion topics include how to prevent disrespectful and harmful behaviors towards women and girls and how to promote healthy choices and relationships among youth.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Positive Bystander Behavior from Baseline to Follow Up
Time Frame: 3 months and 12 months
Assessment of past 3 month positive bystander behavior in athletes when witnessing disrespectful and harmful behavior among peers comparing baseline and follow up summary scores. Athletes report if they have witnessed peers' abusive behaviors in the past 3 months and if witnessed, how they responded (whether they intervened to interrupt the behavior)
3 months and 12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Recognition of Abusive Behavior from Baseline to Follow Up
Time Frame: 3 months and 12 months
Recognition of disrespectful and harmful behaviors against girls as abusive comparing baseline and follow up mean scores on the recognition of abusive behavior scale.
3 months and 12 months
Change in Gender Equitable Attitudes Scale from Baseline to Follow Up
Time Frame: 3 months and 12 months
Assessment of gender-equitable attitudes comparing baseline and follow up mean scores on the gender attitudes scale
3 months and 12 months
Change in Intentions to Intervene from Baseline to Follow Up
Time Frame: 3 months and 12 months
Proclivity to intervene when witnessing disrespectful and harmful behaviors among peers comparing baseline and follow up mean scores on a scale assessing likelihood of trying to stop disrespectful behaviors among peers.
3 months and 12 months
Change in self-reported recent (past 3 month) perpetration of Teen Dating Violence/Sexual Violence at 12 months
Time Frame: 12 Months
Assessment of Teen Dating Violence/Sexual Violence perpetration comparing baseline summary score with follow up 12 month summary score (whether participants have perpetrated acts of Teen Dating Violence or Sexual Violence towards anyone)
12 Months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Pittsburgh

Collaborators

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

March 1, 2015

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 10, 2017

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2018

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 1, 2015

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 5, 2015

First Posted (Estimate)

January 6, 2015

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 15, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 12, 2019

Last Verified

January 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • PRO14020618

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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