Dating Violence in Mexican College Students: Evaluation of an Educational Workshop

Attitudes Toward Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in Latin America: A Systematic Review

Attitudes toward intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) are being increasingly recognized as a central issue for comprehensively understanding this complex phenomenon. While IPVAW remains widespread in Latin America, knowledge about it and research on attitudes toward IPVAW are limited. This systematic review synthesized quantitative peer-reviewed studies that address attitudes toward IPVAW in Latin America. The review was conducted between April 2020 and July 2022 in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses recommendations using the Web of Science, Scopus, and PsycINFO databases. In total, 52 of the 149 eligible articles were selected based on the inclusion criteria. Four sets of attitudes toward IPVAW were identified: legitimacy, acceptability, attitudes toward the intervention, and perceived severity. Attitude correlates were the most common research topic in more than half of the studies but were generally focused on a single country. Among the few multi-country studies, the sample of Latin American countries was small. The remaining studies were divided into three research themes: attitude as a predictor, interventions for attitude change, and scale validation. Our study aims to motivate future research on the identified knowledge gaps and may be useful for the implementation of appropriate prevention policies and intervention programs to counter IPVAW on a regional scale.

The Effectiveness of College Dating Violence Prevention Programs: A Meta-Analysis

Due in part to their involvement with social activities on campus, college students experience an increased risk of dating violence. Recent legislation such as the Campus SaVE Act (which requires U.S. colleges to offer training on sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking, and sexual harassment to all incoming students) has contributed to the increase in prevention programming offered across postsecondary campuses, as well as subsequent research examining the effectiveness of these prevention efforts. The current study provides a systematic review and meta-analysis of college dating violence prevention programs. A systematic search of 28 databases and numerous gray literature sources identified an initial 14,540 articles of which 315 were deemed potentially eligible for inclusion. Studies were selected if they (1) evaluated a college dating prevention program/campaign, (2) reported one of five outcomes (knowledge, attitudes, or bystander efficacy, intentions, or behavior), (3) had a minimum sample size of 20 in the treatment group, (4) used a pre/post and/or comparison group design, and (5) were published in English or French between January 2000 and October 2020. We calculated 53 effect sizes from 31 studies and conducted separate meta-analyses on various categories of outcome measures. Findings suggest that college dating violence prevention programs are effective at increasing knowledge and attitudes toward dating violence, as well as bystander skills, but are not effective at increasing bystander behaviors. Findings from moderator analyses suggest that several program components influence the strength of treatment effects. Implications for improving the effectiveness of college dating violence prevention programs are discussed.

Intervention programs designed to promote healthy romantic relationships in youth: A systematic review

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES

To conduct a systematic literature review of intervention programs designed to promote healthy romantic relationships in youth (aged 12-25 years). The focus was on universal interventions that have the potential to be effective and widely implemented.

METHODS

We systematically searched PubMed, PsycINFO, Social Science Database, and Embase. Articles were included if they were a randomized controlled trial (RCT) or quasi-experimental study and reported on a universal intervention aimed at promoting healthy romantic relationship knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors among youth.

RESULTS

The search strategy identified 27 studies (26,212 participants). Interventions were found to be effective for improving healthy romantic relationship knowledge in the target population. However, the findings were mixed for intervention effectiveness in changing relationship attitudes/beliefs, and there was limited evidence to support change across behavioral outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

This review highlights the need for future research, including high quality RCTs with longer follow-up periods in a broad range of cultural and ethnic settings, to improve the generalisability of findings. Interventions for adolescents that improve knowledge and behavioral change relating to healthy romantic relationships have the potential to reduce mental and physical health problems during this phase of development.