An Online Bystander Intervention to Prevent Teen Relationship Violence

描述（由申请人提供）：青少年关系暴力（TRV）会对青少年的身心健康造成直接和严重的威胁。许多高中提供暴力预防项目，但很少有经过严格评估的，而且在少数显示出对减少暴力率有积极影响的项目中，大多数都是冗长的和/或需要训练有素的辅导员。简而言之，有必要开发具有成本效益的方法来预防TRV。拟议的研究将评估一种创新的在线旁观者干预，它有可能比目前旨在预防TRV的项目更具成本效益。我们将招募240名9-12年级的高中生，他们将被随机分配到在线旁观者干预组和在线对照组。主要有3个评估点（基线、治疗后、6个月随访）。除了使用评估旁观者行为的标准方法外，拟议的研究还将使用虚拟现实技术对旁观者行为进行创新的观察评估。我们相信这种新方法有潜力提供比单独的自我报告方法更有力的程序有效性证据。此外，提出的研究旨在深入了解治疗效果的介质和调节因子。如果在线干预在某种程度上增加了旁观者的行为，从而阻止了TRV，或者如果它减少了青少年的TRV犯罪，那么这项研究将为大规模评估干预奠定基础。一个有效的在线项目在减少TRV方面具有巨大的潜力，因为它可以广泛实施并具有成本效益。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Teen relationship violence (TRV) can pose immediate and serious threats to a teen's physical and mental health. Many high schools offer violence prevention programs, but few have been rigorously evaluated, and of the few that have demonstrated positive effects in reducing rates of violence, most are lengthy and/or require highly trained facilitators. In short, there is a need to develop cost-effective methods for preventing TRV. The proposed research will evaluate an innovative online bystander intervention, which has the potential to be much more cost-effective than current programs designed to prevent TRV. We will recruit 240 high-school students, grades 9-12, who will be randomly assigned to the online bystander intervention condition or to an online control condition. There will be 3 primary assessment points (baseline, post-treatment, 6-month follow-up). In addition to using standard methods of assessing bystander behavior, the proposed research will use an innovative observational assessment of bystander behavior that makes use of virtual reality. We believe this new method has the potential to offer stronger evidence of program efficacy than self-report methods alone. Furthermore, the proposed research is designed to gain insights into mediators and moderators of treatment effects. If the online intervention increases bystander behavior in a manner that deters TRV, or if it reduces teens' TRV perpetration, this research will lay the groundwork for a large-scale evaluation of the intervention. An effective online program would have enormous potential in efforts to reduce TRV, because it could be implemented broadly and cost-effectively.