Clinical trial NCT01672541: Dating Matters: Strategies to Promote Healthy Teen Relationships
Official title: Randomized Controlled Trial of the "Dating Matters: Strategies to Promote Healthy Teen Relationships" Comprehensive Approach
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Teen Dating Violence
Healthy Dating Relationship Behaviors
Keywords: dating violence
healthy relationship behaviors
Lead sponsor: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Sponsor class: FED
Collaborators: name: NORC at the University of Chicago
name: Ogilvy Public Relations
name: Alameda County Public Health Department
name: Baltimore City Health Department
name: Broward County Health Department
name: Chicago Department of Public Health
First posted: 2012-08-27
Enrollment: 10000
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: The Dating Matters: Strategies to Promote Healthy Teen Relationships Initiative intends to promote respectful, nonviolent dating relationships among adolescents living in high-risk, urban communities. CDC has developed a comprehensive approach to promoting respectful, non-violent relationships based on current evidence based and evidence informed strategies. This comprehensive approach includes: school-based curricula for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students; separate parent programs for parents of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students; a communications campaign involving social media and near-peer brand ambassadors; an online training about dating violence for educators; policy assessment at the school or community level; and development and validation of school and community level indicators of teen dating violence. Additionally, schools assigned to the comprehensive condition will also receive intensive training and technical assistance to support implementation of these components. Among 4 U.S. sites, 44 schools will be randomly assigned to implement either the Dating Matters comprehensive approach or the "standard of care" approach, which we are operationalizing as Safe Dates, a an evidence based student curriculum for 8th graders. We hypothesize that the comprehensive approach will be more effective than the standard approach at preventing the perpetration and victimization of teen dating violence over time and at promoting positive relationship behaviors over time.

Detailed description: Dating Matters: Strategies to Promote Healthy Teen Relationships Initiative is intended to promote respectful, nonviolent dating relationships among adolescents living in high-risk, urban communities. The objective of this project is to develop, implement, and evaluate a comprehensive approach to promoting respectful, nonviolent teen dating relationships by utilizing current evidence-based practice and experience. The focus on high-risk, urban communities is predicated on data that suggest that the prevalence of dating violence among middle school students is higher in urban communities (O'Leary \& Slep, in press). Moreover, this project aims to fill a gap in our understanding of teen dating violence (TDV) prevention because existing effective TDV prevention programs have not been identified for these high-risk settings.

CDC's comprehensive approach, the Dating Matters: Strategies to Promote Healthy Teen Relationships Initiative, includes components at multiple ecological domains, individual level, family-level and broader school/community level. Specifically, the initiative includes: (1) school-based implementation of a CDC-developed healthy relationship curriculum in the 6th and 7th grade and an adaptation of an evidence based TDV curriculum (Safe Dates) in the 8th grade; (2) implementation of a 6th (Parents Matter with added TDV content), 7th (CDC developed), and 8th (Families for Safe Dates) grade parent-curriculum; (3) an on-going communications campaign implemented throughout the initiative, which includes a Brand Ambassador adolescent program; (4) educator completion of an online training on the risk factors and warning signs of TDV; (5) policy assessment and information at a school or community level; and, (6) development and validation of school and community-level indicators of TDV. In addition to these components, the schools implementing Dating Matters will also receive additional training and technical assistance in adapting these programs with surface level adaptations to make them more culturally relevant to their specific populations.

CDC is funding the local, city, or county public health departments in Chicago, Illinois, Alameda County (Oakland), California, Broward County (Ft. Lauderdale), Florida, and Baltimore, Maryland to implement the two models of TDV prevention that will be evaluated in the outcome and implementation evaluation: the comprehensive Dating Matters initiative and the standard of care model, which is Safe Dates implemented in 8th grade. These health departments collectively have identified 44 schools in high-risk urban communities; we have randomly assigned half the schools to implement the comprehensive model with intensive technical assistance and half to implement the standard of care model with basic technical assistance. These sites were awarded September 13, 2011.

The purpose of the trial is to determine the effectiveness of the comprehensive approach (Dating Matters) compared with standard practice in TDV prevention (Safe Dates only implemented in 8th grade). Outcome measures for determining effectiveness will be derived primarily from surveys with students, parents, and school educators. However, in addition to surveys, we will also be conducting focus groups with students, curriculum implementers, and brand ambassasors, as well as surveys with brand ambassadors, as sources of process, rather than outcome, measures. These process measures may be used to improve program fidelity, improve program components, or as factors in outcome analyses.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Students, parents, and educators at the schools identified for participation in the study

Exclusion Criteria:

* Students and educators must be able to participate in interventions and complete surveys in English: Parents must be able to participate in interventions and complete surveys in English or Spanish. Those not able to do this due to languages spoken will be excluded.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Perpetration of dating violence
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 6 years
measure: Victimization of dating violence
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 6 years
measure: Engagement in healthy relationship behaviors
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 6 years
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Attitudes toward the acceptability of dating violence
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 6 years
measure: Knowledge about teen dating violence
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 6 years
measure: Attitudes toward gender roles
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 6 years
measure: Knowledge Regarding Available Resources
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 6 years
measure: Positive parenting behaviors
timeFrame: 2 times per year, for up to 6 years
measure: Perpetration of sexual harassment
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 6 years
measure: Victimization of sexual harassment
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 6 years
measure: School climate
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 6 years
measure: Engagement in risky behaviors
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 6 years
measure: Student mental health
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 6 years
measure: Student prosocial behaivor
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 6 years
measure: Parental attitudes toward and rules about dating
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 3 years
measure: Parent-child communication about risk behaviors
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 3 years
measure: Parent relationship quality
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 3 years
measure: Parent engagement in Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 3 years
measure: Dating Violence and sexual harassment visibility in school
timeFrame: 2 times per year first year, 1 time per year for 3 more years
measure: Educator ability to address teen dating violence
timeFrame: 2 times per year first year, 1 time per year for 3 more years
measure: Issues faced by youth
timeFrame: 2 times per year first year, 1 time per year for 3 more years
measure: Parent ability to detect TDV
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 3 years
measure: Exposure to the communications campaign
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 6 years
Other outcomes:
measure: Demographic variables
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 6 years
measure: Experience delivering prevention programs
timeFrame: 2 times per year first year, 1 time per year for 3 more years
measure: Religiosity
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 3 years
measure: Student extra curricular activities
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 3 years
measure: Housing stability
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 3 years
measure: Neighborhood cohesion
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 3 years
measure: Gang involvement
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 6 years
measure: Exposure to intimate partner violence
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 6 years
measure: Exposure to community violence
timeFrame: 2 times per year for up to 6 years
measure: Views toward Dating Matters sustainability
timeFrame: 2 times per year first year, 1 time per year for 3 more years
Locations:
city: Oakland
country: United States
facility: Alameda County Public Health Department
state: California
city: Fort Lauderdale
country: United States
facility: Broward County Health Department
state: Florida
city: Chicago
country: United States
facility: Chicago Department of Public Health
state: Illinois
city: Baltimore
country: United States
facility: Baltimore City Health Department
state: Maryland
Study officials:
affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
name: Phyllis H Niolon, Ph.D.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Espelage DL, Rulison KL, Ingram KM, Valido A, Schmeelk-Cone K, Wyman PA. Social Networks of Adolescent Sexual Violence Perpetrators: Peer Friendship and Trusted Adult Characteristics. Prev Sci. 2022 Jan;23(1):154-166. doi: 10.1007/s11121-021-01296-7. Epub 2021 Sep 3.
citation: DeGue S, Niolon PH, Estefan LF, Tracy AJ, Le VD, Vivolo-Kantor AM, Little TD, Latzman NE, Tharp A, Lang KM, Taylor B. Effects of Dating Matters(R) on Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment Outcomes among Middle School Youth: a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial. Prev Sci. 2021 Feb;22(2):175-185. doi: 10.1007/s11121-020-01152-0.
citation: Estefan LF, Vivolo-Kantor AM, Niolon PH, Le VD, Tracy AJ, Little TD, DeGue S, Latzman NE, Tharp A, Lang KM, McIntosh WL. Effects of the Dating Matters(R) Comprehensive Prevention Model on Health- and Delinquency-Related Risk Behaviors in Middle School Youth: a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial. Prev Sci. 2021 Feb;22(2):163-174. doi: 10.1007/s11121-020-01114-6.
citation: Vivolo-Kantor AM, Niolon PH, Estefan LF, Le VD, Tracy AJ, Latzman NE, Little TD, Lang KM, DeGue S, Tharp AT. Middle School Effects of the Dating Matters(R) Comprehensive Teen Dating Violence Prevention Model on Physical Violence, Bullying, and Cyberbullying: a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial. Prev Sci. 2021 Feb;22(2):151-161. doi: 10.1007/s11121-019-01071-9.
citation: Niolon PH, Vivolo-Kantor AM, Tracy AJ, Latzman NE, Little TD, DeGue S, Lang KM, Estefan LF, Ghazarian SR, McIntosh WLK, Taylor B, Johnson LL, Kuoh H, Burton T, Fortson B, Mumford EA, Nelson SC, Joseph H, Valle LA, Tharp AT. An RCT of Dating Matters: Effects on Teen Dating Violence and Relationship Behaviors. Am J Prev Med. 2019 Jul;57(1):13-23. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2019.02.022. Epub 2019 May 22.