Community Level Primary Prevention of Dating and Sexual Violence in Middle Schools

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Violence
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Social Norms Marketing Campaign; Other: Capacity Building

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.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 4344
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Rhode Island
    • Providence, Rhode Island, United States, 02904
      • Rhode Island Hospital

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 10 years and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

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

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Social Norms Marketing; This arm includes a social norms marketing campaign tailored to the school.	Behavioral: Social Norms Marketing Campaign; This poster based marketing campaign is designed to correct inaccurate perceptions of norms regarding violence.; Other Names: Your Voice Your Data
Active Comparator: Capacity Building; This arm includes a series of teacher training, and parent engagement meetings, with the goal of building capacity to address violence in the school.	Other: Capacity Building; Schools will participate in teacher training and parent training.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Sexual Violence Victimization	Rates of sexual violence victimization	Over 6 months
Dating Violence Victimization	Rates of dating violence victimization	Over 6 months
Sexual Violence Perpetration	Rates of sexual violence perpetration	Over 6 months
Dating Violence Perpetration	Rates of dating violence perpeptration	Over 6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Bystander Intervention	Rates of bystander intervention	Over 6 months
Attitudes Towards Violence	Attitudes towards violence scale	Change from baseline to 6 months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Teacher Engagement in Bystander Intervention	Rates of bystander intervention behavior among teachers	Over 6 months
Perceptions of Social Norms	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.	Change from baseline to 6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Lifespan
• Collaborators: Brown University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Lindsay M. Orchowski, Ph.D., Rhode Island Hospital

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 1, 2017
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 30, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): June 30, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 28, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 21, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): March 22, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 18, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 17, 2021
• Last Verified: February 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 1U01CE002651 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No