Sexual Aggression Clinical Trial
Official title:
A Brief Intervention to Prevent Adolescent Dating Aggression Perpetration
The proposed study is a test of the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a brief
motivational interview style intervention. The intervention will take place in the pediatric
emergency department of the Boston University Medical Center by a trained interventionist
and will follow an intervention manual developed by a team of dating abuse and brief
intervention experts. The study will involve two randomized groups of youth age 15-19: one
group will receive the intervention and the other will not. The study will compare changes
in data from baseline to 3- and 6-month follow-up for those in both groups. Outcomes
including dating abused related knowledge, attitudes about the use of violence to resolve
conflict, and dating abuse behavior (perpetration and/or victimization) will be assessed.
The hypothesis of this study is that youth who receive the intervention will show
improvements in dating abuse related knowledge, attitudes and behavior that are maintained
for 6 months, while those in the control group will show no similar change.
Emergency departments offer a unique setting through which we can reach adolescents who have
perpetrated Adolescent Dating Aggression (ADA). The Project READY (Reducing Aggression in
Dating Relationships for Youth) brief intervention manual and training was developed by Dr.
Emily Rothman, who is a former shelter worker, batterer intervention counselor, and dating
violence expert, with input from research experts in brief intervention, an expert in
adolescent batterer intervention, psychologists, low-income youth of color from the Start
Strong Initiative, and others, with funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The READY intervention intercepts youth who utilize an urban emergency department for
non-acute health care needs (e.g., cuts, sprains), provides them with tailored feedback
about their relationship behavior, and uses motivational interviewing techniques and
prepared worksheets to move them forward on a readiness-to-change continuum towards
non-violent and respectful relationship behavior. For example, after being provided with
information about acts considered unhealthy in a relationship, a participant is asked to
generate a list of "pros and cons" about what he or she does to solve conflicts with
partners, brainstorm alternatives that he or she would use, list reasons why the
alternatives might not work in the moment, and troubleshoot those potential problems.
Participants are then offered a menu of referrals and invited to select those that they
would use (e.g., free mental health and substance abuse counseling, sexual health testing,
gang prevention resources).
The randomized controlled trial (RCT) research study will build upon our completed
small-scale feasibility pilot project, which was conducted in 2012- 13. For the proposed
study, we will recruit a sample large enough to evaluate whether the intervention improves
ADA-related knowledge, positively changes ADA-related attitudes and behavioral intentions,
and reduces self-reported perpetration behavior after 3- and 6-month follow-up periods. The
study will enroll youth ages 15-19 years old. Notably, the setting for this intervention
test will be an urban pediatric emergency department that primarily serves low income youth.
;
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