Randomized Trial of a Gender Enhanced Middle School Violence Prevention Program

描述(申请人提供)：青少年中的欺凌、性暴力和约会暴力都是主要的公共卫生问题，发生率相对较高，需要关注以减轻它们造成的相当大的痛苦。这些问题具有共同的发展相关性，而且越来越多的证据表明，欺凌行为和受害行为与性骚扰、基于性别的骚扰和青少年约会暴力的卷入同时存在纵向联系(Basile等人，2009年；Espelage等人，2012年)。尽管欺凌的成本很高，但美国预防项目的影响一直令人失望，特别是在中学。社交-情绪学习(SEL)项目正在减少美国学校中的攻击性(Durlak等人，2011年)，部分是通过帮助学生发展社交和情绪技能来管理冲突，但效果可能更大。本申请中提供的数据强烈表明，为了提高效果，基于学校的欺凌预防计划需要：1)整合以证据为基础的方法，关注不同程度的影响(个人、同伴、学校)；2)关注基于性别的骚扰和暴力(即，性骚扰和暴力、约会暴力、与性取向和/或性别角色不一致有关的骚扰和暴力)；以及3)解决欺凌和基于性别的骚扰和暴力的主要驱动因素-传统的男性意识形态和仇视同性恋的辱骂。因此，本申请提出了一项大规模的随机对照研究，将第二步(氟氯化碳，2008)方案与性别增强的第二步+转移边界方案(SB；Taylor等人，2011年)进行了比较。SB项目将解决性骚扰、基于性别的骚扰和约会暴力的课堂课程与全校战略相结合，以减少这些结果。全校范围内的战略包括学校应对约会暴力和性骚扰的协议，以及加强对“热点”的监控。来自伊利诺伊州两个学区的28所中学(6-8年级)将随机分配到第二个学区 单步条件或性别增强的第二步条件(第二步/SB)。两组学生(六年级和七年级)将完成基线和后续调查。研究的目的是评估第二步：学生成功通过预防计划(第二步)和性别增强的第二步计划(第二步/SB)在减少欺凌、性骚扰、基于性别的骚扰和青少年约会暴力方面的不同效果；评估性别增强的第二步和第二步在多大程度上导致围绕欺凌、性骚扰、基于性别的骚扰和青少年约会暴力的积极旁观者干预的增加；并测试干预通过对同伴社会动态的影响来影响同龄人对欺凌、性骚扰、仇视同性恋的辱骂和青少年约会暴力的态度的程度。这项研究具有很高的创新性，通过针对欺凌、约会暴力和性骚扰，可能会对公共健康产生重大影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Bullying, sexual violence, and dating violence among adolescents are all major public health problems that occur at relatively high rates and demand attention to alleviate the considerable suffering they cause. These problems share developmental correlates and evidence is emerging that bully perpetration and victimization is concurrently and longitudinally associated with sexual harassment, gender-based harassment, and teen dating violence involvement (Basile et al., 2009; Espelage et al., 2012). Despite the costs of bullying, the impact of prevention programs in the US has been disappointing, especially in middle-schools. Social-emotional learning (SEL) programs are reducing aggression in US schools (Durlak et al., 2011), in part, by helping students develop social and emotional skills to manage conflicts, but effects could be greater. Data presented in this application strongly suggest that to increase effects, school-based bullying prevention programs need to: 1) integrate evidence-based approaches that focus on different levels of influence (individual, peer, school), 2) focus on gender-based harassment and violence (i.e., sexual harassment and violence, dating violence, harassment and violence associated with sexual orientation and/or gender-role nonconformity) and 3) address a major driver of bullying and gender-based harassment and violence - traditional masculine ideology and homophobic name-calling. Thus, this application proposes a large-scale RCT comparing the Second Step (CfC, 2008) program to a gender-enhanced Second Step + Shifting Boundaries program (SB; Taylor et al., 2011). The SB program combines a classroom curriculum that addresses sexual harassment, gender-based harassment, and dating violence with whole-school strategies to decrease these outcomes. School-wide strategies include school protocols for responding to dating violence and sexual harassment and increased monitoring of "hot spots." Twenty-eight middle schools (grades 6 - 8) from two school districts in Illinois will be randomly assigned to either the Second Step only condition or the gender-enhanced Second Step condition (Second Step/SB). Two cohorts (6th and 7th graders) will complete baseline and follow-up surveys. Study aims are to evaluate the differential efficacy of the Second Step: Student Success Through Prevention program (Second Step) versus a gender-enhanced Second Step program (Second Step/SB) on reducing bullying, sexual harassment, gender-based harassment, and teen dating violence; to assess the extent to which gender-enhanced Second Step versus Second Step results in greater increases in positive bystander intervention around bullying, sexual harassment, gender-based harassment, and teen dating violence; and to test the extent to which the intervention impacts peer-level attitudes toward bullying, sexual harassment, homophobic name-calling, and teen dating violence through its effect on peer social dynamics. This study is highly innovative and could have substantial public health impact by targeting bullying, dating violence, and sexual harassment.