A Randomized Controlled Trial on the Effectiveness of Varying Levels of an Evidence-Based Intervention to Prevent Adolescent Relationship Abuse

Adolescent relationship abuse (ARA) has been recognized as a significant problem in the field of public health, with recent studies suggesting that it often begins in middle school and is a significant risk factor for adult intimate partner violence.  While there have been experiments that have demonstrated the effectiveness of ARA prevention interventions in reducing violence, most of these experiments have been done with high school students and none have evaluated the effects of providing different dosages of the intervention.

Building on the evidence-based Shifting Boundaries prevention program for students, we randomly assigned 28 middle schools in New York City to one of four treatment conditions or a control condition. Shifting Boundaries includes classroom lessons as well as school building-level interventions. Through this experiment, we investigated the impact of varying dosages of the program in terms of the number of middle school years students received Shifting Boundaries, and varying environmental saturation reflecting whether all middle school grades received the program or not. Program materials are differentiated to be grade-level appropriate. The first three treatment groups received a cross-sectional intervention delivered in one school semester.  Group 1 schools received only a 6th grade intervention. Group 2 schools received a 6th and 7th grade intervention. Group 3 schools received a 6th, 7th, and 8th grade intervention (full saturation). To address the question of dosage, 6^th grade students at Group 4 schools received three years of Shifting Boundaries through the 8^th grade. Group 5 schools did not receive any intervention and served as our control group. 

Over 2,000 students completed a survey administered before the intervention, 6 months post-intervention and 12 months post-intervention. We will discuss our 6 and 12-month main outcomes, including whether our interventions increased student knowledge of ARA and its prevention, changed attitudes, and reduced ARA. More specifically, we will report (1) whether and how much of a difference it makes when all three middle school grades receive the Shifting Boundaries interventions compared to when only two grades or only one grade receives it or no intervention is provided; and (2) the impact of multiple doses of grade-differentiated curricula over three years compared to a single dose received in 6th grade. Preliminary results show significant intervention impact on violence; e.g. those in the intervention conditions were experiencing peer physical victimization at a significant lower frequency than those in the control condition.