Source: https://www.blueprintsprograms.org/factsheet/safe-dates
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 06:20:59+00:00

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A ten-session dating abuse prevention program to raise students' awareness of what constitutes healthy and abusive dating relationships, as well as the causes and consequences of dating abuse.
Safe Dates is a ten-session dating abuse prevention program for middle/high school students consisting of both school and community components. The school component has a curriculum that is implemented in schools by regular classroom teachers and targets primary prevention, while the community component targets secondary prevention by providing support groups and activities for youth as well as information for parents. The curriculum in the school component can also be presented by community resource people outside of the school setting. Each session is 45-50 minutes in length and includes the following topics: defining caring relationships, defining dating abuse, why people abuse, helping friends, overcoming gender stereotypes, equal power through communication, how we feel/how we deal, and preventing sexual assault. Booster sessions can also be offered after the initial administration of the curriculum.
Safe Dates is a dating violence prevention program that provides male and female middle/high school students with the skills to prevent dating violence by changing dating violence norms and gender stereotyping, improving conflict-management skills, help-seeking behavior, and other cognitive factors associated with help-seeking.
The Safe Dates program includes school (primary prevention) and community (secondary prevention) activities. School activities promote the primary prevention of dating violence perpetration by changing norms associated with partner violence, decreasing gender stereotyping, and improving conflict management skills. Community activities promote secondary prevention by changing those same variables and by also changing beliefs about the need for help, awareness of services for victims and perpetrators of partner violence, and help-seeking behavior. Community activities also enhance the availability of dating violence services from which adolescents can seek help. School activities include: a theater production performed by peers, a 10-session curriculum (45-50 minutes per session), and a poster contest. The 45-minute theater production, about how an adolescent victim of dating violence seeks help with her violent relationship, addresses many of the mediating variables related to help-seeking. The poster contest is described during day 10 of the curriculum, and interested students develop posters that address themes in the Safe Dates curriculum. The poster contest is designed to give adolescents another exposure to messages about dating violence. Posters are displayed in the classroom and judged by students to determine the top three posters in the school, each of which earns a cash prize.
Booster sessions are administered three years post-intervention. The booster consists of an 11-page newsletter mailed to the adolescents' homes and a telephone call from a health educator approximately four weeks after the mailing. The newsletter contains worksheets based on the Safe Dates school curriculum for adolescents to complete. The health educators answer questions, provide additional information when needed, and assess completion of newsletter worksheets.
Although the school component has primarily been implemented by regular classroom teachers as a part of required health education classes, the curriculum could also be delivered by community leaders or as a part of a youth-group activity, provided all of the sessions are completed and a high level of attendance is assured. Topics covered in the curriculum include: defining caring relationships, defining dating abuse, why people abuse, helping friends, overcoming gender stereotypes, equal power through communication, how we feel/how we deal, and preventing sexual assault. Community activities consist of special services for adolescents in abusive relationships (e.g., a crisis line, weekly support groups, materials for parents) and community service provider training.
Safe Dates is effective in preventing and reducing violence perpetration among teens already perpetrating dating violence.
Safe Dates resulted in less acceptance of dating violence, stronger communication/anger management skills, less gender stereotyping, and greater awareness of community services.
60% less violence perpetrated against a current dating partner.
Safe Dates-only adolescents who reported no severe physical perpetration or average amounts of severe physical perpetration at baseline reported significantly less severe physical perpetration than control group adolescents at each of the four follow-up waves.
Safe dates had been proven equally effective for Caucasians and culturally diverse audiences.
Implementation training is available from Hazelden Safe Dates trainers. This hands-on program prepares teachers to deliver Safe Dates with competence and confidence. This training has demonstrated its ability to help participants implement Safe Dates in a way that will garner the outcomes it promises (due to fidelity to the model) and to significantly decrease preparation time. Generally, implementation training is offered on-site for school districts or community organizations, but occasionally Hazelden will offer open-enrollment workshops for multiple organizations. The cost of an on-site workshop (one-day) is $2,200, plus transportation and lodging expenses for the trainer. Open-enrollment workshops are $175.00 per person.
Under a special licensing arrangement with Hazelden, organizations may be granted the authority to train Safe Dates implementers within a geographic region. A three-day training-of-trainers workshop is then held to prepare facilitators to provide implementation training for teachers, counselors, and others who will deliver Safe Dates training to young people in a variety of settings. The cost of this program is $6,200 plus transportation and lodging expenses for the trainer.
Safe Dates was evaluated with 8th and 9th grade students in 14 public schools that were matched and each matched pair was then randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. Evaluation has focused on the effects of the Safe Dates program on the primary and secondary prevention of dating violence. Primary prevention is achieved when the first perpetration of dating violence is precluded. Secondary prevention occurs when victims stop being victimized or perpetrators stop being violent. Data were collected from baseline (October 1994) through four years after program completion.
Foshee, V. A., Bauman, K. E., Arriaga, X. B., Helms, R. W., Koch, G. G., & Linder, G. F. (1998). An evaluation of Safe Dates, an adolescent dating violence prevention program. American Journal of Public Health, 88, 45-50.
Foshee, V. A., Bauman, K. E., Ennett, S., Linder, G. F., Benefield, T., & Suchindran, C. (2004). Assessing the long-term effects of Safe Dates and a booster in preventing and reducing dating violence victimization and perpetration. American Journal of Public Health, 94, 619-624.
Foshee, V. A., Bauman, K. E., Ennett, S. T., Suchindran, C., Benefield, T., & Linder, G. F. (2005). Assessing the effects of dating violence prevention program "Safe Dates" using random coefficient regression modeling. Prevention Science, 6(3), 245-257.
Foshee, V. A., Benefield, T. S., Ennett, S. T., Bauman, K. E ., & Suchindran, C. (2004). Longitudinal predictors of serious physical and sexual dating violence victimization during adolescence. Preventive Medicine, 39, 1007-1016.
Foshee, V. A., Linder, G. F., Bauman, K. E., Langwick, S. A., Arriaga, X. B., Heath, J. L., . Bangdiwala, S. (1996). The Safe Dates project: Theoretical basis, evaluation design, and selected baseline findings. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 12, 39-47.
Foshee, V. A., Reyes, L. M., Agnew-brune, C., Simon, T. R., Vagi, K. J., Lee, R. D., & Suchindran, C. (2014). The effects of the evidence-based safe dates dating abuse prevention program on other youth violence outcomes. Prevention Science, 15(6), 907-916.

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