It's Your Game: An Innovative Approach to Preventing Teen Dating Violence

The purpose of this study is to evaluate Me & You: Building Healthy Relationships, a classroom- and computer-based healthy relationships and dating violence prevention curriculum for 6th grade students, in a large, urban public school district in Southeast Texas.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Domestic Violence; Adolescent Behavior; Physical Violence; Interpersonal Relationships
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Me & You: Building Healthy Relationships

Detailed Description

The purpose of this three year study is to evaluate Me & You: Building Healthy Relationships, a classroom- and computer-based healthy relationships and dating violence prevention curriculum for 6th grade students, in a large, urban public school district in Southeast Texas. This curriculum was adapted from an existing effective sex education and relationship curriculum, It's Your Game…Keep it Real (IYG), which was enhanced to more explicitly address teen dating violence (TDV) and encompass multiple levels of the social-ecological model (e.g., youth, family, school staff). A randomized two-arm, nested design was conducted among 6th grade students, where students receiving the curriculum were compared to students receiving usual care. Ten middle schools participated in the study, five schools were randomly assigned to receive the curriculum and five to receive usual care. Outcomes were assessed at baseline, immediately following the intervention, and 12 months after baseline. Parental permission and student assent were obtained prior to administration of the surveys. The primary hypothesis is that students who receive the curriculum will have significantly lower TDV perpetration than those who do not receive the curriculum.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 834
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Houston, Texas, United States, 77030
      • Melissa Fleschler Peskin

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 11 years to 14 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 6th graders attending regular classes in ten study schools in large, urban school district in Southeast Texas

Exclusion Criteria:

• No students were excluded based on race/ethnicity, age, or gender.
• Students were informed that surveys and the intervention were only available in English and were asked to consider their comfort level with participating in the study.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Me & You: Building Healthy Relationships; Me & You: Building Healthy Relationships is a classroom- and computer-based healthy relationships curriculum for middle school students. It consists of thirteen 25-minute lessons: 5 classroom, 5 computer-only, and 3 classroom-computer hybrid.	Behavioral: Me & You: Building Healthy Relationships; Me & You: Building Healthy Relationships is a classroom- and computer-based healthy relationships curriculum for middle school students. It consists of thirteen 25-minute lessons: 5 classroom, 5 computer-only, and 3 classroom-computer hybrid. The curriculum integrates group-based classroom activities (e.g., role-plays, group discussion, and other skill-building activities) and computer-based activities, some of which are individually tailored. The curriculum was adapted from an existing effective sex education and relationship curriculum, It's Your Game…Keep it Real (IYG), which was enhanced to more explicitly address teen dating violence (TDV).
No Intervention: Comparison Group; No intervention was provided, only usual care.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Percent of youth who perpetrated any type of teen dating violence as indicated by the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory	Validated self report measure by Wolfe et al.	One year
Percent of youth who were victimized by any type of teen dating violence as indicated by the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory	Validated self report measure by Wolfe et al.	One year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Percent of youth who perpetrated psychological teen dating violence as indicated by the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory	Validated self report measure by Wolfe et al.	One year
Percent of youth who were victimized by psychological teen dating violence as indicated by the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory	Validated self report measure by Wolfe et al.	One year
Percent of youth who perpetrated physical teen dating violence as indicated by the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory	Validated self report measure by Wolfe et al.	One year
Percent of youth who were victimized by physical teen dating violence as indicated by the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory	Validated self report measure by Wolfe et al.	One year
Percent of youth who perpetrated sexual teen dating violence as indicated by the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory	Validated self report measure by Wolfe et al.	One year
Percent of youth who were victimized by sexual teen dating violence as indicated by the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory	Validated self report measure by Wolfe et al.	One year
Percent of youth who perpetrated electronic teen dating violence as indicated measures adapted from Picard and Zweig	Validated self report measure by Picard et al. and Zweig et al.	One year
Percent of youth who were victimized by electronic teen dating violence as indicated measures adapted from Picard and Zweig	Validated self report measure by Picard et al. and Zweig et al.	One year
Mean score reflecting student norms toward violence for boys and girls as indicated byt the Acceptance of Dating Abuse Survey	Validated self report measure by Foshee et al.	One year
Mean score for self-efficacy to resolve conflict as indicated by the Teen Conflict Survey	Validated self report measure by Dahlberg et al.	One year
Mean score of constructive and destructive conflict resolution skills as indicated by valid scales developed by Foshee et al.	Validated self report measure by Foshee et al.	One year
Mean score for attitudes towards sexting as indicated by a scale developed by Strassberg et al.	Validated self report measure by Strassberg et al.	One year
Mean score related to a student's belief in the need for help for dating violence victimization as indicated by measures developed by Foshee et al.	Validated self report measure by Foshee et al.	One year
Mean score for perceived peer dating violence perpetration (from the perspective of student) - newly developed	newly developed self-report measure	One year
Mean score for parental communication about drugs, sex, and relationships as indicated by measures developed by Tharp et al.	Validated self report measure by Tharp and Noonan	One year
Percent of youth who indicated social support from source as indicated by measures adapted from the Social Support Rating Scale	Validated self report measure by Cauce et al.	One year
Percent of youth who perpetrated bullying as indicated by measures developed by Wang et al.	Validated self report measure by Wang et al.	One year
Percent of youth who were victimized by bullying as indicated by measures developed from Wang et al.	Validated self report measure by Wang et al.	One year
Percent of youth reported one or more positive coping strategies as indicated by the Kidcope-Child Survey Form	Kidcope-Child Form by Laslo et al.	One year

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Melissa Peskin, PhD, University of Texas Houston School of Public Health; Principal Investigator: Susan Tortolero Emery, PhD, University of Texas Houston School of Public Health

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: September 1, 2012
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 1, 2015
• Study Completion (Actual): May 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 25, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 22, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): March 29, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 29, 2018
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 22, 2018
• Last Verified: March 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: program evaluation; adolescent behavior; teen dating violence; interpersonal relationships; intimate partner violence; violence/prevention & control
• Other Study ID Numbers: HSC-SPH-12-0593

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

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