Community Level Primary Prevention of Dating and Sexual Violence in Middle Schools

Lifespan

Status: Completed

Conditions: Violence

Treatments: Behavioral: Social Norms Marketing Campaign; Other: Capacity Building

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03473067

1U01CE002651

Details and patient eligibility

About

Dating and sexual violence are significant public health concerns occurring on a continuum of severity across the lifespan, with serious consequences to victims and society. The present research advances the science of prevention by rigorously evaluating a comprehensive social norms marketing campaign to promote community-level change in dating and sexual violence in middle schools. Partnership between researchers and a CDC Rape Prevention and Education Program (RPE) funded agency is a core feature of this work, and aims to build community capacity to implement and evaluate violence prevention efforts, and promote the subsequent uptake of social norms marketing campaigns as a strategy for reducing dating and sexual violence among youth.

Full description

In a group cluster trial, a comprehensive, tailored, data-based social norms marketing campaign that addresses misperceptions of: 1) the acceptability of dating and sexual violence; 2) gender roles; 3) sexual activity; 4) sexual communication/consent; 5) support for victims; and 6) bystander intervention will be evaluated among middle schools. Poster messaging will be paired with several systematic efforts to diffuse program content through the community, including a Lunch and Learn Teacher Training, Social Norms Video, Teacher Workbook, Parent Mailing, and Parent Information Session. A member of the researcher-practitioner team, designated as a School Resource Provider, will oversee campaign implementation in partnership with a teacher champion. The Resource Provider will also track campaign intensity, assess campaign credibility through intercept interviews with teachers and students, work with teachers to infuse messaging into classroom activities, and assist the teacher champion with addressing "kick-back" to the campaign. Outcome assessments will be completed by teachers, administrators and students. Towards the goal of exploring the role of other environmental factors as moderators of program effects, school administrators will assess their community readiness to develop and implement school dating and sexual violence prevention policy, in general, and social norms marketing, in particular. A neighborhood scan will also be conducted to estimate the density of nearby outlets associated with gender-based personal violence.

Enrollment: 4,344 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 10+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Student at a middle school or teacher/administrator at a middle school
• Provide student assent and parental consent as specified in protocol or provide adult consent for study participation

Exclusion criteria

• None

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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4,344 participants in 2 patient groups

Social Norms Marketing

Experimental group

Description:

This arm includes a social norms marketing campaign tailored to the school.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Social Norms Marketing Campaign

Capacity Building

Active Comparator group

Description:

This arm includes a series of teacher training, and parent engagement meetings, with the goal of building capacity to address violence in the school.

Treatment:

Other: Capacity Building