Bystander Intervention Efficacy to Reduce Teen Dating Violence Among High School Youth Who Did and Did Not Witness Parental Partner Violence: A Path Analysis of A Cluster RCT

Annelise Mennicke, Heather M. Bush, Candace J. Brancato, Ann L. Coker

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Youth who witness parental intimate partner violence (IPV) are at increased risk of teen dating violence (DV). This analysis of secondary data investigated whether a bystander intervention program, Green Dot, was effective at reducing physical and psychological DV victimization and perpetration among youth who had and had not previously witnessed parental IPV. The parent RCT assigned 13 schools to control and 13 schools to the Green Dot intervention. Responses from 71,797 individual surveys that were completed by high school students were analyzed across three phases of a 5-year cluster randomized control trial. Multigroup path analyses revealed that students in intervention schools who witnessed parental IPV had a reduction in psychological (p <.001) and physical DV (p <.01) perpetration and psychological DV victimization (p <.01) in Phase 2 of the intervention, while those who did not witness parental IPV had a significant reduction in psychological DV victimization (p <.01). Individuals in the intervention received more training (p <.001), which was associated with lower levels of violence acceptance (p <.001). Violence acceptance was positively associated with DV victimization and perpetration (p <.001), especially for individuals who previously witnessed parental IPV. Green Dot is an effective program at reducing DV victimization and perpetration among the high-risk group of youth who previously witnessed parental IPV, largely operating through violence acceptance norms. This underscores the bystander intervention approach as both a targeted and universal prevention program.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)755-771
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of Family Violence
Volume36
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).

Funding

FundersFunder number
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention5U01CE001675
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Injury Prevention and ControlK01CE003160
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

    Keywords

    • Bystander intervention
    • Dating violence victimization and perpetration
    • High-risk youth
    • Parental IPV

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Clinical Psychology
    • Law
    • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
    • Sociology and Political Science

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