Preventing Sexual Violence Through a Comprehensive, Peer-led Initiative
Condition: Sexual Violence
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The purpose of this multiple baseline study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a
      comprehensive youth-led sexual violence (SV) prevention program, Youth Voices in Prevention
      (Youth VIP). The prevention program builds on youth-adult partnerships among middle and high
      school students in Rapid City, South Dakota. Consenting students will take part in a youth
      summit where they will be trained as popular opinion leaders to spread SV prevention messages
      among middle and high school youth and parents. Following the summit, youth will work in
      small groups focused on different aspects of evidence-based prevention strategies including
      bystander intervention, social marketing messaging, parent education, norms change, and
      social emotional learning. Multiple research methods will be used to examine implementation
      process and cost. In addition, consenting students will take six surveys across three years
      including several surveys before programming begins, and several to document Youth VIP
      outcomes after prevention programming takes place. Survey data from a demographically similar
      community will be used to assess changes over time among youth in Rapid City, SD. All phases
      of the project will be implemented with collaboration from a Research Programming Advisory
      Board of community members and professionals from Rapid City, SD.
    

Detailed description: 
      Sexual violence (SV) impacts adolescents at rates higher than most other age demographics.
      Although it is a critical public health issue for youth, there are few prevention initiatives
      that lead to reductions in SV. There is increasing recognition that SV prevention efforts may
      be most effective if youth are central to the development and implementation of such efforts.
      Problematically, there are no rigorously evaluated youth-led SV prevention efforts, and
      researchers also know little about the process by which youth create prevention initiatives.
      Teen UP (TU) is a youth-led initiative in Rapid City, SD that focuses on addressing a variety
      of public health issues, including awareness about SV. This "homegrown" initiative is well
      integrated in the community and is the ideal platform on which additional multi-level,
      evidence-based SV prevention strategies can be added. Researchers and SV prevention
      specialists at the University of New Hampshire, in partnership with Rape Prevention
      Education-funded agencies in South Dakota (SD) (i.e., Network Against Family Violence and
      Sexual Assault [The Network] and Working Against Violence Inc. [WAVI]), will work together
      along with a number of community stakeholders (e.g., educators, peers, elders) and expert
      consultants to enhance TU to include additional SV prevention strategies, a project titled
      Youth Voices in Prevention (Youth VIP). Although the plan for the programming enhancement
      will be refined based on feedback from the Research and Programming Advisory Board (RPAB) and
      data collected during the refinement and planning phase of the project, the current plan is
      to convene a youth summit where high school youth will be trained as popular opinion leaders
      to diffuse SV prevention messages in addition to youth joining a formal working group
      specific to a SV prevention strategy that also aligns with youth's career aspirations. A
      mixed method approach will be used to measure implementation processes, fidelity, and costs
      over time, and to assess the impact of Youth VIP on rates of sexual violence perpetration
      among middle and high school students, as well as the secondary outcomes of sexual violence
      victimization, dating violence and bullying victimization and perpetration, depression, and
      suicidality. Collaboration with the community of students, parents, and professionals in
      Rapid City will be promoted by establishing a Research Programming Advisory Board (RPAB) that
      will meet monthly during the project.

      All students in grades 7 through 10 in the fall of 2017 will be invited to participate in two
      baseline and four follow-up surveys that will be given in school. Surveys will take place in
      fall and spring of each of three school years, and the cohort enrolled in fall of 2017 will
      be followed over time. Recruitment of students and parents is being done in close
      collaboration with the Rapid City Area School District. The investigators anticipate
      enrolling 2,000 students.

      Qualitative data includes Photovoice interviews (a technique where students take pictures of
      their community and describe how those pictures relate to violence in their community),
      interviews of students who attended programming, and interviews with key adult stakeholders.
      We will identify common themes in this data using content analysis, then code the interviews
      for these themes. We will present both the frequency that these themes emerged and key
      exemplary quotes. We will use a variety of methods to analyze the quantitative data. First,
      we will examine change in outcomes over time as a function of exposure to programming.
      Second, using social network analysis, we will examine change in outcomes as a function of
      the programming exposure of one's close friends. Third, we will use pooled cross-sectional
      analyses to compare students in the same grade levels over time as the program is implemented
      (e.g., compare this year's eight graders to last years' eighth graders). Fourth, we will use
      multilevel modeling to examine trajectories and changes in the cohorts (e.g., compare growth
      in this year's eight graders to last years' eighth graders) who are nested within schools. We
      will examine outcomes in these ways for primary outcome (sexual violence perpetration and
      victimization), intermediary outcomes (e.g., social norms), and secondary outcomes (e.g.,
      suicidal thoughts).
    

Intervention name(s): Youth VIP
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Youth VIP involves youth in partnerships with adults to adapt evidence based sexual violence prevention strategies for the local community environment. Youth VIP includes a three day intensive youth summit for prevention training and ongoing youth-adult prevention working groups.
Intervention model: Sequential Assignment
Intervention model description: Multiple baseline survey design across three years including two baseline surveys prior to prevention programming and rollout of doses of programming across two years.
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: Sexual Violence; Prevention; Mixed-Methods; Outcome Evaluation; Process Evaluation; Adolescence