Development and evaluation of a primary prevention program on dating violence for high school students

Abstract

Since dating violence may occur among high school students in Japan, it is urgent to develop a dating violence prevention program for them. This study developed a 50-minute primary prevention program against dating violence for high school students to learn conflict resolution skills without violence. The program consisted of lectures on “assertiveness” to be honest with self-expression, “perspective-taking” to think from partner’s point of view, and views on dating violence. The treatment group comprised 79 students, along with 71 students as the control group. The effects of the program were evaluated by pre-, post-, and 5-month follow-up surveys. Significant effects of the program were shown for the improvement and long-term retention of the sense of violence and short-term improvement of assertive relationship formation. However, the program did not significantly affect assertive persuasion-negotiation and improvement in perspective-taking. It is expected that the positive effects of the program on the sense of violence will be shown to persist, and we intend to improve the program to promote the retention of improvements in long-term assertive relationship formation.