Strengthening Supports for Healthy Relationships: A Gender-Sensitive, Mixed Metho

描述（由申请人提供）：亲密伴侣暴力（IPV）在美国是一个重要的公共卫生问题，在青少年关系行为中有着发展的根源。在密歇根州韦恩县，青少年中IPV的比率估计为14%，尽管这一估计被认为是保守的（青少年行为监测，1997）。考虑到问题的严重性，重要的是要了解可能有效预防犯罪的可改变的保护因素，包括社会参与、规范认知、父母监督和自我控制，以及这些因素如何与社区暴力和集中劣势、童年创伤和早期接触色情等风险因素联系起来。生活在城市环境中的青少年遭受各种形式暴力或其他创伤事件的风险更高，但很少有研究充分探讨社区环境与IPV之间的关系。该研究的目的是通过强调IPV、社区、学校和家庭各级的风险和保护因素以及有关暴力的背景和认知之间的纵向关系，为知识库和预防领域作出贡献。还将特别注意技术在各种形式的指规数中所起的作用，以及对指规数的机制、意义和背景的相同点和不同点有性别敏感的看法。该研究的中心假设是，社区、学校和家庭中的可改变因素可以影响和缓和青少年生活中存在的风险因素，缓冲这些影响以减少IPV的发生。我们期望社会参与和联系以及影响规范性认知的方法将缓和创伤性生活事件和暴露的影响。本研究采用大规模纵向混合方法设计，旨在理清IPV犯罪、社区背景、学校环境、同伴和家庭影响之间的关系。韦恩县的六个学区将在三年的时间里参与这项拟议的研究，包括三波调查研究、焦点小组和政策分析。在每个学区内，一所高中和至少一所初中将根据暴力程度和集中的劣势进行分层，参与研究。参与的学校将获得金钱奖励。还将向参与的学校提供有关预防规划和政策制定的广泛培训和能力建设。初中和高中学生将分别从小学6年级和10年级开始，在3年的时间里，每年对提供家长同意书和青少年同意书的学生进行调查。期望的样本量为1240，以允许不可避免的损耗，并为了有足够的能力对因素之间的相互关系进行复杂分析。从这个样本中，青年和他们的父母将被招募参加单独的焦点小组，以提供更深入的了解调查研究和书面政策分析的结果。在调查管理之后，学生的住所将在人口普查街区组级别进行地理编码，并将构建一个大型数据集，将调查数据与公开的犯罪数据、人口普查信息和学校特征相结合。在研究过程的每个阶段，将采取广泛的措施来保护参与者的机密性。在每一波数据收集结束时，将在研究小组和学校之间的合作努力下进行数据共享和数据解释协助，以便建立初级预防基础设施。为了检验提出的假设，将使用层次线性模型和结构方程模型进行分析。适当分析研究变量的层次性质的嵌套模型结构将用于估计个人、关系、学校和社区层面的IPV犯罪风险和保护因素的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant public health concern in the United States, having developmental roots in youth relationship behaviors. Within Wayne County, Michigan, rates of IPV among youth are estimated at 14%, although this estimate is believed to be conservative (Youth Behavior Surveillance, 1997). Given the gravity of the problem, it is important to understand the modifiable protective factors that may be efficacious in prevention perpetration, including social engagement, normative cognitions, parental supervision, and self-control, and how these relate to risk factors including community violence and concentrated disadvantage, childhood trauma, and early exposure to pornography. Adolescents geographically located in an urban environment are at heightened risk for exposure to various forms of violence or other traumatic events, yet there is little research that adequatel examines the relation between community context and IPV. The aim of the research is to contribute to the knowledge base and prevention field by underscoring the longitudinal relationships between IPV, risk and protective factors at the community, school, and family levels, and context and cognitions about violence. Specific attention will also be provided to the role of technology in the various forms of IPV, as well as a gender sensitive lens regarding the similarities and difference in the mechanism, meaning and context of IPV. The central hypothesis of the study is that modifiable factors within the community, school, and family can impact and moderate the risk factors that exist within the lives of youth, buffering these impacts to decrease IPV perpetration. We expect that social engagement and connections and approaches to influence normative cognitions will moderate the impacts of traumatic life events and exposures. Using a large-scale longitudinal mixed-methods design, the proposed study seeks to disentangle the relationship between IPV perpetration, community context, school environment, and peer and family influences. Six school districts in Wayne County will participate in the proposed study over a three-year period, including three waves of survey research, focus groups, and policy analysis. Within each school district, one high school and at least one middle school, stratified by level of violence and concentrated disadvantage, will participate in the research. Schools will receive a monetary incentive for participation. Participating schools will also be provided with extensive training and capacity building regarding prevention programming and policy development. Students from the middle and high schools who provide parental consent and youth assent will be surveyed in each of the three years, starting with the sixth and tenth grade years respectively. A desired sample size of 1240 is desired to allow for unavoidable attrition and in order to have adequate power for complex analysis of the interrelationships of factors. From this sample, youth and their parents will be recruited to participate in separate focus groups to provide greater depth of understanding the results of the survey research and written policy analysis. Following the survey administration, students' residences will be geocoded at the census block group level and a large dataset will be constructed that will merge survey data with publically available crime data, census information, and school characteristics. At each stage of the research process, extensive measures will be taken to preserve the confidentiality of participants. At the end of each wave of data collection, data sharing and assistance with data interpretation will take place in a collaborative effort between the research team and schools in order to build infrastructure for primary prevention. In order to test the proposed hypotheses, analysis will be conducted using hierarchical linear modeling and structural equation modeling. A nested model structure that appropriately analyzes the hierarchical nature of the study variables will be used to estimate the effects of individual, relational, school, and community-level risk and protective factors for IPV perpetration. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed research is to generate knowledge surrounding the factors at the individual, relational, school, community, and societal levels that may prevent intimate partner violence (IPV) and explore the roles of gender, technology, and changing norms of relationships in the etiology of abusive behavior. The proposed mixed methods study is theoretically driven and incorporates a scientific research design that addresses the prevalence and incidence of IPV in representative samples of adolescent males and females, as well as diverse ages, races/ethnicities, and social classes. The exploration of normative cognitions about violence, self control, and exposure to community violence and other forms of trauma, all in the context of technological use and misuse will provide us a foundation that informs continued research and practice in the area of developing evidence-based prevention protocols for intimate partner violence.