Adapting Dating Violence Prevention to Francophone Switzerland: A Story of Intra-Western Cultural Differences

Abstract

Dating violence prevention programs, which originated in the United States, are beginning to be implemented elsewhere. This article presents the first adaptation of a violence prevention program for a European culture, Francophone Switzerland. A U.S. dating violence prevention program, Safe Dates (Foshee & Langwick, 1994), was reviewed in 19 youth and 4 professional focus groups. The most fundamental program concepts--"dating" and "violence"--are not the same in Switzerland and the United States. Swiss youth were not very focused on establishing monogamous romantic relationships, and there is no ready translation for "dating." Violence has not become the focus of a social movement in Switzerland to the same extent that it has in the United States, and distinctions among terms such as "dating violence" and "domestic violence" are not well known. Psychoeducational approaches are also less common in the Swiss context. As the movement to prevent violence extends worldwide, these issues need greater consideration.

Preventing domestic abuse for children and young people (PEACH): a mixed knowledge scoping review

“…Three papers in the quantitative review contained qualitative data 57,59,68 and three were wholly qualitative studies. [74][75][76] All of the studies reported the views of children and young people participating in programmes using their direct quotes, which was a key criterion for their inclusion in this part of the systematic review. Three programmes were delivered in the UK, two in the USA and one in Switzerland.…”

“…Four of the other studies were programme evaluations, three reported the views of young people on the programme in general 57,59,75 and one examined the impact of gender grouping on user satisfaction. 68 The Hamby et al study 76 aimed to examine the transferability of a North American programme into a 'western' but different social and cultural context. The differing intentions of the studies produced a wide range of findings (Table 19), presenting challenges for data synthesis.…”

“…59,68,76 Belknap et al suggested that the cultural specificity of the programme aimed at Mexican American students 'makes the transferability of the method and the findings to others with the same background more likely' (p. 66). 59 Although the ethnicity of the actors delivering the theatre performance did not match that of the young people, the culturally specific content was considered as significant.…”

“…59 Although the ethnicity of the actors delivering the theatre performance did not match that of the young people, the culturally specific content was considered as significant. Those involved in adapting the US 'Safe Dates' programme to the Franco-Swiss sociocultural context 76 found issues with the transferability of language and the terminology used to convey the concepts of violence and abuse. The programme was critiqued by young people and local professionals as having too formal a structure and format, and as premised on US culture, making it unacceptable to the Swiss young people participating in the study.…”

Violências percebidas por homens adolescentes na interação afetivo-sexual em dez cidades brasileiras

“…Recently, this matter, which has been the subject of in-depth US and Canadian literature 12 , has begun to be examined in other countries, including Brazil [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] . A common thread among these is that different types of aggression are frequently deemed acceptable or, at least, quite natural, among adolescents.…”