Abstract of Distinction: Me & You: An Effective Technology-Based Healthy Relationships Curriculum for Middle School Students

Background: Teen dating violence (TDV) is a serious public health concern, especially for U.S. ethnic minority middle school youth. Young people who experience TDV are more likely to experience depression, suicidal ideation, substance use, risky sexual behavior, school difficulties, and adult violence. Some middle school programs elicit positive change related to TDV; however, most have been developed for and/or evaluated for older, predominantly white adolescents. Culturally- and age-appropriate school-based TDV programs for younger, ethnic minority youth, who are at increased risk for TDV, are urgently needed. Further, few effective programs have included components from multiple levels of the socio-ecological model, and none, to our knowledge, use technology (sans video) which facilitates tailored education. To address these prevention needs, we developed and evaluated a theoretically-based intervention for 6^th-grade students, “Me and You: Building Healthy Relationships (Me & You)” that included student (13 classroom- and computer-based lessons), family (parent-child homeworks), and school (teacher training, school newsletters) components.

Methods: Me & You was evaluated in a randomized controlled trial in 10 Southeast Texas middle schools. ACASI surveys were used to assess psychosocial and behavioral outcomes at baseline when the students were in 6^th grade, immediately after program completion, and at 12-months follow-up. Measures included TDV perpetration and victimization and associated psychosocial variables. Multi-level linear and logistic regression models, adjusted for school clustering, were conducted. Per previous studies, analyses were conducted among the overall sample and daters only.

Results: The baseline sample (n=709) was 52.5% female, 21.0% Black, and 71.1% Hispanic. The mean age was 12.2 (SD=0.59). By the 12-month follow-up, the odds of “any” type of DV perpetration was lower among intervention students compared to control students (AOR=0.46; 95% CI = 0.28-0.74). For specific DV types, in the overall sample, reduced odds among intervention students compared to control students were reported for physical DV perpetration (AOR=0.35; 95% CI- 0.19-0.66), emotional DV perpetration (AOR=0.62; 95% CI= 0.41-0.96), threatening DV perpetration (AOR=0.33; 95% CI=0.15-0.71) and victimization (AOR=0.36; 95%=0.17, 0.78), and sexual DV victimization (AOR=0.32; 95% CI=0.11, 0.94). With few exceptions, results were comparable in the “dating” sample. In the overall sample, there was a sustained positive impact on more unfavorable norms towards violence for boys against girls and girls against boys compared to control students.

Conclusions: Me & You is an effective TDV program for middle school students. Implementation of such programs is critical for reducing TDV among early adolescent ethnic-minority youth.