Introduction
Adolescent dating violence is an issue that has greatly impacted young people in the United States. Many of the cases or incidences have affected a great number of teens in the country in a manner that has raised concerns even among legislators. The latter have called upon different levels of government, local, state and federal, to invest resources towards prevention of more incidents. There are youths who have suffered lifelong effects of the torture and trauma.
ADV or adolescent dating violence refers to intentionally harming someone emotionally, physically or sexually. The last one happens mostly between individuals that are in an intimate relationship. Even with the increasing cases each year, it is important to note that female teenagers are the most affected group. They are abused more frequently as well as severely which has led to women rights activists pleading with concerned authorities to intervene. The issue can be tackled in a classroom setting by ensuring that young people participate in programs that help them make better decisions. This paper looks at the issue of adolescent dating violence, strategies that can help reduce the cases, and ways to measure their effectiveness.
Literature Review
Adolescent dating violence (ADV) is usually not viewed by people valued or involved in the society, even though it may culminate in murders of women, for example, in abusive partnerships. Close to sixty incidents are reported every year from every urban district (Malhi et al., 2020). Borges et al. (2020) claim that ADV aids in predicting marital violence in adulthood. Femicide at this stage has been addressed as a critical public health issue and has become more prominent with regards to adolescents’ health. Borges et al. (2020) report that numerous population-based investigations have revealed that there are health issues related to adolescent dating violence including anxiety, depression, and substance abuse.
Other authors highlight the sexual risk behavior of sexually transmitted diseases and the low academic performance as adverse implications of the condition in discussion. Additionally, there is proof that violence in some areas in the United States may be associated with ADV (Borges et al., 2020). This is one of the primary issues that need tackling in various parts of the world (Borges et al., 2020). Several policies as well as action initiatives, consequently, continue to be implemented particularly in the school setting which is the main arena for creation of adolescents’ identity and socialization.
Nevertheless, the problem is hardly debated in developing nations and insight concerning the subject remains incipient thereby hampering sensitization of individuals about the issue and formulation of policy to address it. Millions of youths around the country are impacted by adolescent dating violence which makes it something to worry about (Malhi et al., 2020). It takes place either in person, online, or via technology. Experts claim that it is a type of intimate partner violence that can consist of several forms (Borges et al., 2020). For instance, someone imposing physical pain on the other by hitting or slapping them is physical violence. Sometimes, a person may be forced to engage in sexual activities with a person or being touched without consent. This is sexual violence and can as well include sharing naked pictures of a partner with a third party without permission.
There are times when someone uses verbal as well as non-verbal communication with intentions of harming their partner psychologically or emotionally and exert control over them and it is called psychological aggression. Lastly, Malhi et al. (2020) have found that stalking is another form of adolescent dating violence whereby an offender is repeatedly trying to contact their former or current partner. This leads to safety concern or fear for a person who is close to the victim. All these forms greatly affect opportunity, lifelong health, and wellness. Unhealthy relationships can begin early as well as last a lifetime.
Adolescents or teens usually view some behaviors such as name-calling or teasing are normal and need to be embraced by everyone in a relationship. However, they can be abusive and develop into severe forms of violence (Malhi et al., 2020). Many of the individuals in this stage of life fail to report such issues due to fear of sharing with family or friends. In 2019, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a study on the risk behaviors among the youth (Bundock et al., 2020). Bundock et al. (2020) reveals that among the United States high school learners who reported dating during the last year prior, about one in twelve experienced physical violence, and one in twelve sexual violence. According to Bundock et al. (2020), some adolescents are at a higher risk than others. Females experience more cases of physical and sexual violence than the males.
The worst implications of adolescent dating violence are experienced by women, as mentioned earlier. Additionally, femicide has been identified as the most serious and done by males whereby the victim is subjected to the offender’s control (Bundock et al., 2020). The more intense the violence, the more the prevalence of serious psychiatric disorders common among adolescents. The relationship between ADV and the disorders can vary based on age. The strength of the connection decreases in magnitude as one ages.
Healthy People Perspective on Adolescence Dating Violence
Adolescence stage is a vital transitional phase which includes biological changes of puberty as well as developmental tasks, for example, normative exploration and learning to become independent. Young people who have attained the age of majority as well encounter major social and economic challenges with less organizational support at a moment when they are anticipated to be responsible and handle obligations. There are great differences in results amongst ethnic and racial groups (Cuccì et al., 2019). Generally, the youth from the African American, Latino, or American Indian communities particularly those from poverty-stricken homes, witness worse in various areas. These may include unplanned pregnancy, obesity, tooth decay, and educational accomplishment in contrast to those from Asian or White American communities.
Additionally, sexual minority young people have a greater prevalence of many health risk behaviors. The fiscal burdens of preventable medical issue are large and consist of the long-haul costs of chronic conditions as a result of behaviors started during the adolescent stage or young adulthood. For instance, the yearly adult health-associated burden of smoking cigarettes, which often begins during such years, was computed as two hundred and eighty-nine billion dollars for 2009 to 2012 (Cuccì et al., 2019). According to Healthy People, some of the effective policies and initiatives that can address health issues among teens include school-based health care services, access to health care, and mental health and substance use interventions.
Health Promotion Model
Apart from the measures that are proposed by the Healthy People, the health promotion model can as well be applied in this situation. The theory describes the multidimensional nature of people as they interact within their settings to pursue health. It stresses focus on various areas including behavior-specific cognitions and affect, individual characteristics and experiences as well as behavioral outcomes. To use and apply this model in the case of a victim of adolescent dating violence, the determinants have to be known and understood (Fernández-González et al., 2018). For instance, someone who is the offender can be helped by studying their background. Majority of the time, one will discover that they were raised in homes that normalized intimate partner violence. As they continue to grow up and become interested in relationships, they practice what they witnessed from parents or guardians.
Plan Description
Primary Prevention Plan: Adolescent Dating Violence
The population used consisted of students in grades nine to twelve since it is at this age that individuals experience adolescence. The methodology includes selecting five to ten students in the four classes of a particular school and use them as participants. Afterwards, strategies chosen will be implemented and they consist of the safe dates project, break the cycle’s ending violence curriculum, the 4th R, and the Youth Relationships project. The main objectives include reducing the rate of occurrence of violent incidents and ensuring teens get informed about the negative effects of such acts. Additionally, it is important to consider approaches that can be conducted in a classroom setting. The time frame for the whole process will vary between one to fourteen days. The actions to be undertaken include having school activities, teaching on legal implications of students’ behaviors, and integrating interactive curriculum. Majority of the programs that are used and suggested in this section are school-based and utilize a group format (Garthe et al., 2018).
The length of their application can shift from under twenty-four hours to in excess of twenty meetings. Some of the ideas and principles that guide the proposal include understanding what perspective is the strategy based on and their purpose as well since this process is goal-oriented. There are those that outline the issue utilizing a women’s activist perspective whereas others utilize a more ability-based point of view. Adolescent dating violence prevention programs seem to seek solutions to issues concerning managing conflicts, peace-making, orientation generalizing as well as critical thinking capabilities (Malhi et al., 2020). Activities aimed to highlight issues and eliminating falsehood about them, are usually incorporated in the educational plan.
The Safe Dates Project
It refers to an intervention program that includes school activities such as theatre production done by peers. The activities in this case will consist of a curriculum of ten three-quarters of an hour sessions conducted by physical and health education educators and a poster competition. There are community activities too, for example, services for teens in violent relationships and service provider training (Malhi et al., 2020). Malhi et al. (2020) discovered reductions in the possibility of being a perpetrator or a victim of moderate physical and mental violence and sexual violence amongst ninth graders who participated. Nevertheless, there lacked drops in the chance of becoming a victim of serious violence, either psychological or physical (Spencer et al., 2021). Moreover, the discoveries revealed that learners indicated fewer acceptances of violence and conventional sex roles, more belief in needing helps and knowing how to obtain it. This strategy is ideal as it enables reaching the objective of reducing the rate of occurrence of physical and sexual violence and a posttest is recommended to check its effectiveness.
Break the Cycle’s Ending Violence Curriculum
Ending violence refers to a three-day curriculum created for students and focuses on teaching young people concerning the legal consequences as well as protections for victims and perpetrators of dating violence. An appraisal is done with a sample of predominantly Latino adolescents from a large urban district discovered that the youth showed more insight of the laws, less acceptance of female-on-male aggression (Stonard, 2021). It as well indicated that they had increased awareness of the helpfulness and possibility of seeking aid from different sources after completing the program. The same actions will be undertaken when applying this technique. This strategy is ideal as it ensures one of the objectives is met, that is, guaranteeing teens acquire adequate information about the negative effects of physical violence. Similar to the above mechanism, a posttest is used to test the efficacy.
The 4th R
This refers to an interactive curriculum conducted in a classroom and mostly used for ninth graders for ten sessions of thirty minutes each. Significance is not maintained for the ones who were in a relationship for the last year. Nevertheless, male students in the intercession group are less likely than those in the control group to participate in adolescent dating violence (Taquette & Monteiro, 2019). Females in both show similar results and this has held true when previously subsamples are assessed. Comparison is the main method used as girls and boys are studied differently using their results. The strategy allows the intervention to be done in a classroom and reduces the rate of violent acts among teenage partners which are objectives of this process. Unlike the above two mechanisms, an evaluation test is used to check the effectiveness of this one.
The Youth Relationships Project
The initiative centers around handling the behavioral or social, emotional as well as mental variables that permit young people to reinforce the outflow of positive cooperations with partners and minimize the possibility of forceful way of behaving and power-decisive. It teaches the youth concerning the gender-based violence and aids them in developing social actions and skills such as communication, personal responsibility and community participation and it only needs five sessions of forty minutes each. It is important to note that the main action in this technique is educating the participants.
Research was conducted whereby fourteen to sixteen years old teens were provided with child protective services. The researchers discovered that the intervention was productive in minimizing cases of emotional and physical abuse and indicators of emotional distress over time for those in the intervention (Taquette & Monteiro, 2019). To be precise, young people showed ridiculously more significant decrease in the utilization of coercive techniques within the dating relationship and interest, motivation and comprehension of a program’s content. The objective of reducing the rate of physical violence is achieved by this strategy. Here, the posttest is most preferred due to its ability to compare and contrast.
Shifting Boundaries
This strategy has had positive impacts on minimizing dating violence within randomized experimental research in large urban districts. The main action is studying by comparison the efficacy of a program, school intervention at building phase and collaboration of both (Taquette & Monteiro, 2019). The former consisted of six sessions whereby there was a focus on the implications of perpetration, that is, state laws or penalties. It as well emphasized on the establishment of sex roles as well as healthy relationships.
The intervention in light of building comprised of the use of more significant levels of personnel, brief school-based controlling requests, and presence of safety in places perceived through understudy planning of areas of interest. Moreover, incorporated the utilization of flyers, posters and brochures to build information on dating viciousness and offering data to staff from school (Taquette and Monteiro, 2019). As opposed to a benchmark group, the students who were essential for the structure just mediations and the people who saw both homeroom and building interventions were keener concerning the consequences of executing viciousness. They found out about the types that are all the more potentially to occur, to stay away from such regions and perhaps mediate as spectators a half year after intervention. The combination as well led to a drop in cases of physical and sexual violence by close to fifty percent. The objective reached by this strategy is that the participants gain an understanding concerning the negative effects of their actions. Both evaluation test and posttest can be used to check the effectiveness of this initiative.
Methods to Evaluate Plan’s Effectiveness
Posttest
A protest refers to a test offered to learners after completing an instructional intervention or program and usually used in collaboration with a pretest to determine their effectiveness and accomplishment. There are certain steps that one can use this method, for instance, locating and assigning pretest prior to implementing curriculum. After that, the individual scores as well as evaluates pretest. Thirdly, they assign posttest after implementation of curriculum. The posttest is then scored and assessed and then, the results are compared.
Evaluation Test
An evaluation test refers to a process whereby components are compared as well as contrasted against specifications and requirements via testing. The outcomes are assessed to check the progress of performance. An individual who desires to conduct one has to follow three steps, before, during and after intervention. Prior to intervention plan, they have to plan collect data. They will identify the purpose of the task, determine the proper approach, define available resources and those that are needed. After that, they will develop an evaluation method by determining the target group for the outcomes, parameters for gathering data, and appropriate quizzes. In data collection, they gather baseline information for future comparison in impact and outcome-based evaluations.
The next step is tracking how widely materials have been spread as well as evaluate expenses of resources and time. Information is gathered concerning intervention recipients (Zych et al., 2021). After the intervention, post-intervention data gathering is conducted to contrast with baseline. Where it is appropriate, a second wave of collecting data is done at a later point to evaluate whether or not intervention impacts persist within time as well as if alterations are sustainable. In an evaluation test, the last step is analyzing data obtained, interpreting it, and creation of a report.
Conclusion
The paper has been able to look at the issue of adolescent dating violence, strategies that can help reduce the cases, and ways to measure their effectiveness. It has revealed that the condition is usually not viewed by people in the society, even though it may culminate in murders of females. Femicide at this stage has been addressed as a critical public health issue and has become more prominent with regards to adolescents’ health. It is important that every person that is concerned about the problem to support integration of some programs in the classroom setting. These will guarantee that the cases reduce and better decision-making is done by the teenagers.
References
Borges, J. L., Heine, J. A., & Dell’Aglio, D. D. (2020). Personal and contextual predictors for adolescent dating violence perpetration.Acta Colombiana de Psicología, 23(2), pp. 460-470. Web.
Bundock, K., Chan, C., & Hewitt, O. (2020). Adolescents’ help-seeking behavior and intentions following adolescent dating violence: A systematic review.Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 21(2), pp. 350-366. Web.
Cuccì, G., O’Leary, K. D., Olivari, M. G., Bonanomi, A., & Confalonieri, E. (2019). Adolescent dating violence perpetration, emotion dysregulation, and parenting styles.Journal of Family Psychology, 33(1), pp. 12. Web.
Fernández-González, L., Calvete, E., Orue, I., & Echezarraga, A. (2018). The role of emotional intelligence in the maintenance of adolescent dating violence perpetration.Personality and Individual Differences, 127, pp. 68-73. Web.
Garthe, R. C., Gorman‐Smith, D., Gregory, J., & E. Schoeny, M. (2018). Neighborhood concentrated disadvantage and dating violence among urban adolescents: The mediating role of neighborhood social processes.American Journal of Community Psychology, 61(3-4), pp. 310-320. Web.
Malhi, N., Oliffe, J. L., Bungay, V., & Kelly, M. T. (2020). Male perpetration of adolescent dating violence: A scoping review.American Journal of Men’s Health, 14(5). Web.
Spencer, C. M., Toews, M. L., Anders, K. M., & Emanuels, S. K. (2021). Risk markers for physical teen dating violence perpetration: A meta-analysis.Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 22(3), pp. 619-631. Web.
Stonard, K. E. (2021). The prevalence and overlap of technology-assisted and offline adolescent dating violence.Current Psychology, 40(3), pp. 1056-1070. Web.
Taquette, S. R., & Monteiro, D. L. M. (2019). Causes and consequences of adolescent dating violence: a systematic review.Journal of Injury and Violence Research, 11(2), pp. 137. Web.
Zych, I., Viejo, C., Vila, E., & Farrington, D. P. (2021). School bullying and dating violence in adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 22(2), pp. 397-412. Web.