Abstract
Peers are the preferred source of help for Brazilian adolescents who experience dating violence. However, they are not always the best informants for effective responses for dealing with situations of violence in romantic relationships among peers. This experimental study aimed to evaluate the short-term efficacy of three aspects of a peer- and bystander approach-based intervention: the intent to offer help, empathy, and bystander attitudes in response to dating violence in a Brazilian sample of adolescents. The study’s participants were 33 adolescents randomized in two groups: experimental group (EG, n = 14) and control group (CG, n = 19). The EG underwent three weekly intervention sessions of 90 min each on the healthy versus violent romantic relationships, the quality of friendship in the peer network, and the role of the bystander, while the CG received no intervention. Evaluations were performed 1 week before and two and half months after the intervention. Statistically significant differences between EG and CG at post-test were not found in intention to help, empathy, and bystander attitudes. Future studies should include evaluations of larger samples and mid- and long-term follow-ups to identify patterns of change over the long term as well as examine barriers to utilization of bystander behaviors by adolescents in Brazilian culture.
Highlights
Dating violence is a public health problem of great magnitude in Brazil (Barreira, De Lima, & Avanci, 2013; Flake, Barros, Schraiber, & Menezes, 2013; Oliveira, Assis, de Njaine, & Pires, 2014; Oliveira, de Assis, Njaine, & de Oliveira, 2011) and in the world (Leen et al, 2013; Niolon et al, 2015)
Mixed results on utilization of bystander behaviors (Katz, Heisterkamp, & Fleming, 2011; Miller et al, 2012) and willingness to intervene (Miller et al, 2012) have been found. These results suggest that the development and evaluation of bystander-based programs for preventing dating violence compose a large domain of research still to be explored, within which dwell questions related to its efficacy to produce change at the individual and community levels as well as the context and mechanisms which generate such results
The current study extends prior research by examining the short-term effects of a peer- and bystander approach-based intervention to improve the intent to offer help, empathy, and bystander attitude outcomes at the level of the individual in response to dating violence in a Brazilian sample of adolescents
Summary
Dating violence is a public health problem of great magnitude in Brazil (Barreira, De Lima, & Avanci, 2013; Flake, Barros, Schraiber, & Menezes, 2013; Oliveira, Assis, de Njaine, & Pires, 2014; Oliveira, de Assis, Njaine, & de Oliveira, 2011) and in the world (Leen et al, 2013; Niolon et al, 2015). According to the first epidemiological study about violence in dating and “flings” between Brazilian youth, 86.9% of adolescents have been victims of and 86.8% have been perpetrators of some form of violence, physical, sexual, or psychological, in their current or previous relationships (Oliveira et al, 2011). The negative impact of dating violence on mental and physical health is clear (Ellis, Crooks, & Wolfe, 2009; Foshee, Bauman, Linder, Rice, & Wilcher, 2007; Stader, 2011). Risk and protection factors for the perpetration of dating violence were identified in a literature review of longitudinal studies (Vagi et al, 2013). The identification of the sources of influence is fundamental to determining dating violence predictor factors that can be changed by means of an intervention (Foshee et al, 2010)
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