A Stage-Based Expert System for Teen Dating Violence Prevention

描述(申请人提供)：男性与女性亲密伴侣之间的暴力行为占医院急诊科女性暴力相关伤害的26%，占所有女性杀人案的30%。青春期早期到中期为预防亲密伴侣暴力提供了一个极好的“机会之窗”。亲密关系中的关系模式仍然相对没有区别，也容易受到影响。然而，支持传统的、以学校为基础的预防青少年约会暴力计划的证据喜忧参半。现有项目存在的一个主要问题是，它们“一刀切”，很难满足学生的不同需求--男孩和女孩，正在约会的人和没有约会的人，经历过约会暴力的人，作为受害者和施暴者，或者两者兼而有之，以及那些没有经历过约会暴力的人。也许最重要的是，这些干预忽略了个体在准备使用健康、非暴力的方式保持无暴力方面的差异。在当前的项目中，我们将使用专家系统技术将预防青少年约会暴力的最佳实践与跨理论模型(TTM)，即“阶段模型”相结合，以开发一个交互式的计算机管理的变化计划，提供根据变化阶段和其他个人特征量身定做的个性化干预课程和练习。这个项目的主要目的是开发和验证TTM的每个主要维度的测量，开发用于预防青少年约会暴力的专家系统干预的工作原型，并确定我们的方法在试点测试中的可行性。高中生将参加焦点小组，以产生TTM措施的想法(n=60)，并就干预材料提供反馈(n=60)；认知访谈，以确保TTM说明和问题被解释为预期的(n=12)；以及可用性测试，以确保专家系统干预易于导航并提供连贯的干预体验(n=12)。600名学生将完成测量发展的调查，100名学生将参加试点测试。如果我们能够在课堂期间按计划向至少90%的试点测试参与者提供干预措施，并且如果至少75%的试点测试参与者在可接受性和感知效用的衡量标准上提供4或更高的总体评分(即，提供在“良好”到“优秀”的范围内的分数)，则这种方法的可行性将被确立。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Male-to-female intimate partner violence accounts for 26% of violence-related injuries in women presenting in hospital emergency departments and 30% of all female homicides. Early to mid-adolescence provides an excellent "window of opportunity" for the prevention of intimate partner violence. Patterns of relating in intimate relationships are still relatively undifferentiated and open to influence. However, the evidence supporting traditional, school-based programs for the prevention of teen dating violence is mixed. A major problem with existing programs is that they are "one size fits all," making it difficult to meet the diverse needs of students-boys and girls, individuals who are dating and those who are not, individuals who have experienced dating violence as a victim, perpetrator, or both, and those who have not. Perhaps most importantly, these interventions neglect individual differences in readiness to use healthy, non-violent ways of relating to stay violence-free. In the current project, we will use expert system technology to integrate best practices for teen dating violence prevention with the Transtheoretical Model (TTM), the "stage model," to develop an interactive computer-administered change program that delivers individualized intervention sessions and exercises tailored to stage of change and other individual characteristics. The primary aims of this project are to develop and validate measures of each of the major dimensions of the TTM, develop a working prototype of the expert system intervention for teen dating violence prevention, and determine the feasibility of our approach in a pilot test. High school students will participate in focus groups to generate ideas for the TTM measures (n=60) and to provide feedback on the intervention materials (n=60); cognitive interviews to ensure TTM instructions and questions are interpreted as intended (n=12); and usability tests to ensure that the expert system intervention is easily navigable and provides a coherent intervention experience (n=12). Six hundred students will complete surveys for measure development, and 100 will participate in the pilot test. Feasibility of this approach will be established if we are able to deliver the intervention as planned during classroom sessions to at least 90% of pilot test participants, and if at least75% of pilot test participants provide an overall rating of 4 or higher (i.e., provide scores in the "good" to "excellent" range) on a measure of acceptability and perceived utility.