Effectiveness of a Safety App to Respond to Dating Violence for College Women and Their Friends
Condition: Intimate Partner Violence
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Intimate partner violence (IPV), including violence in dating relationships (dating violence,
      DV) is a widespread and serious public health problem. Among U.S. female IPV survivors, 47.1%
      report their first abusive relationship occurred at college age (age 18-24). Similarly, in
      national surveys, adults respondents 18-24 years of age report the highest rate of stalking
      victimization, most commonly by a former intimate partner. Safety planning is the most widely
      used intervention to prevent and respond to IPV, yet the vast majority of abused women never
      access safety planning services. Our challenge is to increase college women's access to
      safety planning, with the opportunity to consider their unique safety priorities and level of
      danger during and when ending an abusive relationship. In addition, while "bystander"
      interventions that train peers to safely intervene have been shown to be effective in sexual
      assault prevention on campus, and college women in abusive relationships most frequently
      disclose IPV to a friend, no similar interventions have been tested with friends for IPV
      response on campuses. Therefore, the objective of the study is to evaluate the:

        1. effectiveness of an interactive, personalized smart phone and web based safety
           application ("App") intervention in Maryland and Oregon with: 1) college women (age
           18-24) who experience IPV and 2) friends (age 18-24) of women experiencing IPV. The
           safety decision App allows the user to enter information on: a) relationship health; b)
           safety priorities; and c) severity of violence/danger in relationship. The App then uses
           the information to provide the user with a personalized safety planning information and
           resources; and

        2. dissemination of the App nationally to determine the reach, adoption, implementation and
           maintenance of App use among university/college students.
    


Intervention name(s): Usual Care Safety Planing App; Personalized App-Based Safety Decision Aid
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The control group App will provide women and friends with basic safety planning information and a brief resource list of IPV resources. The resources will be targeted to college students age 18-24 years. The control group App safety plan is not personalized to woman/friend's safety priorities and danger in the relationship.; Setting of priorities for safety: participants will establish priorities by making pairwise comparisons of importance between 5 factors.
Danger Assessment: asks participants to report on well-established risk factors for repeat violence and lethal IPV. A weighted scoring algorithm provides participants with their validated level of danger and safety planning information and resources based on their level of danger.
Personalized action plan: Based on a participant's answers to the previous sections, a list of safety strategies with links to resources will be presented tailored to their level of danger and priority settings. The participant is given the option to print results and the personalized plan.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Participant)
Primary purpose: Other
Keywords: Intimate Partner Violence; Dating Violence; Relationships; Safety Planning; College; Student; App