Experimental Evaluation of a Youth Dating Violence Prevention Program in New York City Middle Schools, 2009-2010 (ICPSR 32901)

Version Date: May 18, 2012

Cite this study |

Principal Investigator(s):
Bruce Taylor, National Opinion Research Center; Nan D. Stein, Wellesley College. Wellesley Centers for Women; Dan Woods, Police Executive Research Forum; Elizabeth Mumford, National Opinion Research Center

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR32901.v1

Version V1

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Summary

The study sought to measure knowledge about laws related to domestic violence and harassment, resources for help, rape myths, and skills such as conflict resolution; attitudes about the acceptability of violent, abusive, and harassing behaviors; behavioral intentions to avoid committing violent acts in the future as well as intentions to intervene when in the position of a bystander; behavioral measures about peer and dating partner physical and sexual violence experienced as a victim or perpetrator, and sexual harassment experienced as a victim or perpetrator; and other items covering a demographic profile of the students and questions on prior attendance at an educational program about sexual assault, harassment, or violence, and prior history of dating.

Researchers randomly assigned a school-based intervention to 6th and 7th grade classes (over 2,500 students) in 30 public middle schools in New York City to one of four conditions: (1) a classroom-based intervention; (2) a school-wide intervention; (3) interventions that included both classroom and school-wide components; or (4) a (no treatment) control group. The classroom based intervention was delivered through a six session curriculum that emphasized the consquences for perpetrators of domestic violence and harassment, state laws and penalties for domestic violence and harassment, the construction of gender roles, and healthy relationships. The school-wide intervention included the development and use of temporary school-based restraining orders, higher levels of faculty and security presence in areas identified by students and school personnel as unsafe "hot spots", and the use of posters to increase awareness and reporting of domestic violence and harassment to school personnel. Pencil and paper surveys were distributed to students at three different times: (1) immediately before the assignment to one of the four study conditions, (2) immediately after the treatment (or control condition) was completed, and (3) between five and six months after assignment to one of the four study conditions. The surveys took about 40 minutes to complete and were completed in the classroom during one class period.

Citation

Taylor, Bruce, Stein, Nan D., Woods, Dan, and Mumford, Elizabeth. Experimental Evaluation of a Youth Dating Violence Prevention Program in New York City Middle Schools, 2009-2010. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2012-05-18. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR32901.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (2008-MU-MU-0010)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

None

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2009-09 -- 2010-06

Date of Collection

2009-09 -- 2010-06

Data Collection Notes

  1. Qualitative data collected through focus group interviews with students and interventionists are not currently available as part of this data collection.

  2. Users of this data are encouraged to read the Final Report for more information on the classroom-based and school-wide interventions.

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Study Purpose

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relative effectiveness of a multi-level approach to domestic violence and harassment prevention for middle school students from a large urban school district.

Study Design

Researchers randomly assigned 30 public middle schools in New York City (n=117 classrooms; n=1,266 sixth grade students, and n=1,388 seventh grade students) to one of four conditions: (1) a classroom-based intervention; (2) a school-wide intervention; (3) interventions that included both classroom and school-wide components; or (4) a (no treatment) control group. The classroom based intervention was delivered through a six session curriculum that emphasized the consequences for perpetrators of domestic violence and harassment, state laws and penalties for domestic violence and harassment, the construction of gender roles, and healthy relationships. The school-wide intervention included the development and use of temporary school-based restraining orders, higher levels of faculty and security presence in areas identified by students and school personnel as unsafe "hot spots", and the use of posters to increase awareness and reporting of domestic violence and harassment to school personnel. Pencil and paper surveys were distributed to students at three different times: (1) immediately before the assignment to one of the four study conditions, (2) immediately after the treatment (or control condition) was completed, and (3) between five and six months after assignment to one of the four study conditions. The surveys took about 40 minutes to complete and were completed in the classroom during one class period.

Sample

A stratified random allocation procedure was used. Schools were classified by two stratifying criteria: school size and location in the city. Schools and classrooms were assigned to one of four study conditions according to SAS computer-generated random numbers. Within each of these four conditions, a random sample of classrooms was selected for participation in the study to complete all three waves of the student survey.

Time Method

Longitudinal: Cohort / Event-based

Universe

All sixth and seventh grade students in all New York City middle schools between September 2009 and June 2010.

Unit(s) of Observation

individual, school, classroom

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

The student surveys include variables in the following sections:

  • Knowledge related to domestic violences and harassment prevention measures include questions about state rape laws, definitions of abuse and sexual harassment, resources for help, rape myths, and skills such as conflict resolution.
  • Attitudes towards domestic violence and harassment are measured by asking about the acceptability of violent, abusive, and harassing behaviors.
  • Behavioral intentions are measured by asking about willingness to intervene in harmful situations, interrupt harassment, and show an intent to avoid harmful relationships.
  • Behavior is a self-reported measured asking about perpetration and victimization involving domestic violence and harassment.

    • The survey also includes a small number of demographic variables on the students including age, gender, and ethnicity/racial background, and questions on prior attendance at an educational program about sexual assault, harassment, or violence, and prior history of dating.

    Response Rates

    Within the final sample of 30 schools, the response rate for students was 93 percent at the baseline survey. Eighty-seven percent of the students in classes assigned to take the survey completed the first follow-up survey (immediately after the intervention) and 82 percent completed six-month follow-up survey.

    Presence of Common Scales

    None

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    Original Release Date

    2012-05-18

    Version History

    2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
    • Taylor, Bruce, Nan D. Stein, Dan Woods, and Elizabeth Mumford. Experimental Evaluation of a Youth Dating Violence Prevention Program in New York City Middle Schools, 2009-2010. ICPSR32901-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2012-05-18. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR32901.v1

    2012-05-18 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

    • Standardized missing values.
    • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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    Weight

    None

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    Notes

    • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.