Building a Strong Relationship: A Prevention Program for at-Risk Male Youth

Throughout the United States intimate partner violence (IPV) impacts individuals, families, and communities. Risk factors for experiencing IPV include younger age, lack of education or employment, a history of childhood trauma, and poverty. Additionally, evidence indicates that dating violence among teenagers is growing at a faster rate than among any other population in the U.S. The aim of the current project was to develop an evidence-based intervention to reduce IPV in high-risk adolescent dating relationships, based on the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) criteria for prevention programs. Specifically, we used a sample of incarcerated adolescent males, ages 13 to 17, residing in an alternative sentencing program for low-to-medium risk offenders, due to the number of risk factors these adolescents likely exhibited. The four major components of the intervention, titled Building a Strong Relationship (BSR), were (1) helping adolescents differentiate healthy from unhealthy relationship behaviors while learning  risk factors for violence and abuse; (2) helping adolescents learn better emotional regulation skills; (3) enhancing their communication skills; and (4) increasing their ability to manage their own stress levels and clarifying their life values. The first phase was collaboration with a residential alternative sentencing program for juvenile delinquents (i.e. Camp Martin), which would be the target population for the prevention program. The second phase of development consisted of adapting Building a Lasting Love (BALL: Langhinrichsen-Rohling & Turner, 2012), a group curriculum previously shown to reduce perpetration of psychological abuse and severity of IPV victimization within romantic relationships within a high-risk adolescent female population, for use in a high-risk adolescent male population. The third phase was piloting the four sessions with 17 males who completed anonymous evaluations of the specific session materials. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being excellent, the mean rating for the piloted sessions was 5.0 (n = 17), suggesting significant enthusiasm from the males. The fourth phase was conducting focus groups for specific feedback on the materials and content of the intervention. Preliminary data from the focus groups resulted in material and content changes to the group intervention. The development and future directions of the Building a Strong Relationship program will be discussed.