Efficacy of a bystander intervention for preventing dating violence in Brazilian adolescents: short-term evaluation

Abstract

Peers are the preferred source of help for Brazilian adolescents who experience dating violence. However, they are not always the best informants for effective responses for dealing with situations of violence in romantic relationships among peers. This experimental study aimed to evaluate the short-term efficacy of three aspects of a peer-and bystander approach-based intervention: the intent to offer help, empathy, and bystander attitudes in response to dating violence in a Brazilian sample of adolescents. The study's participants were 33 adolescents randomized in two groups: experimental group (EG, n = 14) and control group (CG, n = 19). The EG underwent three weekly intervention sessions of 90 min each on the healthy versus violent romantic relationships, the quality of friendship in the peer network, and the role of the bystander, while the CG received no intervention. Evaluations were performed 1 week before and two and half months after the intervention. Statistically significant differences between EG and CG at post-test were not found in intention to help, empathy, and bystander attitudes. Future studies should include evaluations of larger samples and mid-and long-term follow-ups to identify patterns of change over the long term as well as examine barriers to utilization of bystander behaviors by adolescents in Brazilian culture.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of bystander intervention programs for intimate partner violence and sexual assault.

“…Regarding the age of the population, adults—mainly college/university students—showed higher ESs than adolescents did. This is in line with previous findings, reporting that the topic of partner violence and sexual assault is more applicable to adults than to adolescents (Dos Santos et al, 2019), and that the impacts of program delivery were the highest in the first year of college students (Kettrey et al, 2019). In terms of the program delivery methods, only the ES of video-based interventions was not significant.…”

Perceptions and practices on coping in a network of violence between adolescent intimate partners

“…A literatura aponta que esses programas podem ser desenvolvidos em parcerias entre escolas e a rede de atenção à saúde, utilizando uma linguagem voltada para o público adolescente e com o protagonismo dos seus pares. (31)(32)(33) Destacou-se neste estudo que a maioria das profissionais entrevistadas eram enfermeiras, o que aponta para a predominância dessa categoria profissional no enfrentamento da violência nos territórios da APS e no desenvolvimento de ações voltadas aos adolescentes. (34) Todavia, foi averiguado em estudo nacional que as ações de enfermagem na APS direcionadas ao público adolescente são predominantemente compostas por orientações.…”

Intervention programs designed to promote healthy romantic relationships in youth: A systematic review

“…Preliminary evidence suggests that interventions focused on fostering healthy romantic relationships could be effective among young people (Bradford et al, 2016; Larson et al, 2007; Schramm & Gomez‐Scott, 2012). Moreover, interventions designed to promote healthy relationship skills and knowledge and/or reduce unhealthy relationship among school students began to be rolled out and evaluated prior to the 2000s in the United States (Avery‐Leaf et al, 1997; Foshee et al, 1998) and have become increasingly common around the world (Carrascosa et al, 2019; Dos Santos et al, 2019; Munoz‐Fernandez et al, 2019).…”