Online toolkit shares lessons on teen dating violence prevention

Futures without Violence (US) has launched a new online toolkit to assist those in developing teen dating violence (TDV) prevention programmes.

The toolkit shares the lessons learnt from Start Strong, a national programme in the US which examined healthy relationship development and teen dating violence prevention efforts involving middle (intermediate) school students.

Start Strong promoted healthy relationships among 11- to 14-year-olds and identified promising ways to prevent teen dating violence across 11 sites. As part of the programme, the schools implemented one of two evidence-based teen dating violence prevention programmes: Safe Dates or Fourth R.

The online toolkit was developed as a resource companion for those working with teens and dating violence prevention. The toolkit includes:

• facts about why middle (intermediate) school matters for preventing teen dating violence;
• the Start Strong four key elements of success;
• quotes and video interviews from experts, leaders and youth; and
• downloadable material and links to other resources.

Start Strong was collaboratively developed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Blue Shield of California Foundation and Futures without Violence. It was evaluated by RTI International. Key findings of the evaluation were:

Outcome Evaluation: Prevention in middle school matters

• Most students in the evaluation study were already dating, and many were experiencing dating violence while in 7th grade.
• Start Strong had a sustained positive impact on middle-school students’ attitudes towards teen dating violence and gender equality, two key factors related to TDV.
• Start Strong students who reported TDV victimization, perpetration, or both at wave 1 were differentially impacted by Start Strong.
• For at least one follow-up wave, these students reported a reduction in bullying perpetration, a more positive school climate, more positive attitudes towards gender equality, and increased parent-child communication.
• No significant differences were detected between teachers at Start Strong schools and comparison schools.

Policy Evaluation: Policy efforts can make a difference

• By fall 2012, six of the 11 Start Strong communities achieved significant policy wins. As a direct result of their work, five sites secured important changes to TDV-related school district policies. Sites also provided technical assistance and awareness-building to inform changes to state legislation. State legislation was strengthened in three states.
• In addition, all 11 sites established one or more practice changes that remained in place in the school year after the completion of Start Strong funding. Practice change included prevention education, staff training, and parent education.
• Start Strong policy efforts raised support for TDV prevention, elevated the work of grantees, and led to other significant changes beyond written policy.
• Collaborations became more extensive and varied over the course of the initiative.

In New Zealand, the Families Commission released a review of the research on schools relationship education programmes in November 2013. The review found that internationally, "Safe Dates and The Fourth R are the programmes most widely agreed to be effective" (p.10).

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