Juntos: A Pilot Test of a Dating Violence Intervention for Latine Families

Juntos Latine Dating Violence Prevention Intervention Pilot

In this trial, we will be pilot-testing a family-based dating violence prevention program for Latine caregivers and adolescents. Participants will be randomized 1:1 to receive a community-based 6 week intervention or to a wait-list control where they will receive a resource guide.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Parent; Prevention; Intimate Partner Violence (IPV); Cultural Diversity
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Juntos; Behavioral: Resource guide

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 41
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, 15213
      • Primary Care Center
    • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, 15216
      • Casa San Jose

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Adolescents

1. Between the ages of 12-16
2. Identify as Hispanic or Latino/a/x/e
3. Speaks Spanish or English
4. Lives within 50 miles of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
5. Has a participating parent or caregiver* in the study

Adults

1. Over the age of 18
2. Identifies as Hispanic or Latino/a/x/e
3. Speaks Spanish
4. Lives within 50 miles of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
5. Is a caregiver of a participating adolescent in the study
6. Was born outside of the United States

Exclusion Criteria:

• Does not meet inclusion criteria
• Unable to consent

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: Juntos intervention; In the Juntos intervention, 24 caregiver-adolescent dyads will receive a 6 week family-based dating violence prevention intervention called Juntos. Juntos includes 6 in-person sessions and 5 at home activities and was developed by Latino caregiver-adolescent dyads. Topics include cultural values and practices, talking about dating and dating violence, rule-setting, understanding signs of healthy and unhealthy relationships, and resources for support.	Behavioral: Juntos; 6 week family-based intervention
Active Comparator: Control group; The control arm will resource a resource guide and can be placed on a wait list to receive the intervention after the intervention is complete	Behavioral: Resource guide; Active control arm will receive a resource guide

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Acceptability	Acceptability Intervention Measure (scored on a Likert scale, 1 to 5 with 1 being completely disagree and 5 being completely agree). 4 items will be averaged for a summary score with higher numbers meaning higher acceptability.	weekly for 6 weeks, after each intervention session
Feasibility	%participants who are enrolled, %consented, % randomized, % completed baseline, follow up and 3 month follow up surveys	baseline (pre-intervention), 1 week post-intervention follow up, 3 month post-intervention follow up surveys

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Self-efficacy in preventing dating violence	11 item measure scored on a Likert scale to assess self-efficacy in preventing dating violence. Score for 7 items is on a 4 point Likert scale with 1: not at all confident and 4: very confident and the score for the other 3 items is 1 to 5 with 1: strongly disagree and 5: strongly agree. We will create a summary score which is the average of these 7 items, with higher numbers meaning higher self-efficacy around preventing dating violence.	baseline (pre-intervention), 1 week post-intervention follow up, 3 month post-intervention follow up surveys
Motivation to preventing dating violence	4 item measure scored on Likert scale focused on motivation caregivers and adolescents have around preventing dating violence. 0=not at all important and 10=very important. We will great a summary score which is an average of the 4 items, with a higher score indicating higher motivation around preventing dating violence.	baseline (pre-intervention), 1-week post intervention follow up, 3 month post-intervention follow up surveys
Attitudes around dating violence	12 item measure assessing participants' attituding around dating violence scored on a Likert scale. 1: Not abusive: 2: a little abusive; 3: somewhat abusive; 4: very abusive; 5: extremely abusive. We will create a summary score which is an average of the 12 items, which higher scores indicating believing that the behaviors are more abusive	baseline (pre-intervention), 1-week post intervention follow up, 3 month post-intervention follow up surveys
Caregiver-adolescent communication around dating violence	5 item measure scored on Likert scale assessing communication around dating violence. 0: never; 1: once; and 2: more than once. We will create a summary scare which is an average of the 5 items with higher numbers indicating more conversations.	baseline (pre-intervention), 1-week post intervention follow up, 3 month post-intervention follow up surveys
Parental monitoring	Scale around dating and dating violence specific parental monitoring. This scale includes 6 items around time and resources scores on a 5 point Likert scale with 1: strongly disagree to 5: strongly agree; 2 items around parental knowledge of child's dating partner which is scored on a 5 point Likert scale with 1: strongly disagree and 5: strongly agree; 3 items around dating rule setting which is score on a 5 point Likert scale from 1: strongly disagree to 5: strongly agree and 4 items around child disclosure of dating violence scored on a 5 point Likert scale from 1:strongly disagree to 5; strongly agree. We will great a summary scale which is the average of the measures, with higher numbers indicating more parental monitoring.	baseline (pre-intervention), 1-week post intervention follow up, 3 month post-intervention follow up surveys
Adolescent relationship abuse victimization (whether someone has experienced violence)	25 item measure to assess experiences of physical, emotional, sexual, economic, and digital dating violence (0=never experienced; 1=experienced but not in the last year; and 2=experienced in the last year)	baseline (pre-intervention), 1-week post intervention follow up, 3 month post-intervention follow up surveys
Adolescent relationship abuse perpetration (whether someone has used violence)	25 item measure to assess experiences of physical, emotional, sexual, economic, and digital dating violence perpetration (0=never experienced; 1=experienced but not in the last year; and 2=experienced in the last year)	baseline (pre-intervention), 1-week post intervention follow up, 3 month post-intervention follow up surveys

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Ethnic Identity	Multiethnic Identity Measure; 12 item scale on a 4 point Likert scale from 1: strongly disagree to 4: strongly agree. Summary score of the average of 12 items with higher scores indicating more ethnic identity.	baseline (pre-intervention), 1-week post intervention follow up, 3 month post-intervention follow up surveys
Acculturation conflict measure	7 item acculturation conflict measure (investigator developed) scored on a 4 point Likert Scale from 1: strongly disagree to 4: strongly agree. A summary score of the average of the 7 items will be computed, with higher scores indicating more parent-adolescent acculturation conflict.	baseline (pre-intervention), 1-week post intervention follow up, 3 month post-intervention follow up surveys
Discrimination Scale	9 item Everyday Discrimination Scale scored on a 6 point Likert scale with 1: never to 6: every day. A summary score (average of the 9 items) will be created with higher scores indicating more experiences of discrimination.	baseline (pre-intervention), 1-week post intervention follow up, 3 month post-intervention follow up surveys

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Pittsburgh
• Collaborators: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 1, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 1, 2025
• Study Completion (Actual): September 1, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 30, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 1, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): November 4, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): January 21, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 20, 2026
• Last Verified: February 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: dating violence prevention; culturally affirming prevention; caregiver-adolescent intervention; Hispanic and Latino
• Other Study ID Numbers: STUDY24020165; K23HD104925 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: Due to the sensitivity of the survey data, we will not share individual patient data

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No