"Architects of Their Own Brain." Social Impact of an Intervention Study for the Prevention of Gender-Based Violence in Adolescence

Dating Violence Experiences Among Sex-Trafficking Youths in Juvenile Detention

Juvenile justice involvement is a risk factor for sex trafficking, as is teen dating violence (TDV). However, little is known about how TDV victimization correlates with sex-trafficking victimization among girls in juvenile detention. This study was conducted with 111 detained female minors from two Arizona juvenile detention centers. All female detainees were screened for sex-trafficking risk factors by a clinical staff member and completed a series of surveys about their life experiences and a dating violence history survey. Nearly half of the participants, 42.3% (n = 47), reported having experienced sex trafficking. Girls in juvenile detention who reported sex-trafficking victimization were significantly more likely to report higher scores on the TDV scale.

Accessibility of intimate partner violence-related services for young women in Spain. Qualitative study on professionals' perspectives

INTRODUCTION

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is common among young people, but the use of IPV resources among young adult women and teenagers is limited. This study aims to analyze professionals' perceptions about the main barriers and facilitators encountered by young women (16-29 years old) exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) when accessing formal services in Spain.

METHODS

Qualitative study based on 17 in depth interviews carried out in 2019 with professionals who manage resources for IPV care in Madrid (Spain) from different sectors (social services, health care, security forces, women or youth issues offices, associations). A qualitative content analysis was conducted.

RESULTS

The professionals interviewed perceive the following barriers: 1) Time it takes for young women to recognize IPV because the social construction of sexual-affective relationships is permeated by gender inequality; 2) The process of leaving a situation of abuse; 3) Barriers inherent to IPV services. The key aspects to improve access to these resources are related to care services, professional practice, and the young women themselves.

CONCLUSIONS

There are both psychosocial barriers, derived from the process of leaving a situation of violence, as well as structural barriers for young women to access and properly use the recognized services specifically aimed at them or comprehensive IPV care. Services need to be tailored to the needs of young women so they can be truly effective in order to escape IPV.

School-based interventions TO Prevent Dating and Relationship Violence and Gender-Based Violence: STOP-DRV-GBV systematic review

Background

Schools have a duty of care to prevent violence between students but a significant amount of dating and relationship violence and gender-based violence occurs in schools. These are important public health issues with important longitudinal consequences for young people.

Objectives

To understand functioning and effectiveness of school-based interventions for the prevention of dating and relationship violence and gender-based violence.

Review methods

We undertook a mixed-methods systematic review to synthesise different types of evidence relating to school-based interventions for the prevention of dating and relationship violence and gender-based violence to understand if, how and in what ways these interventions are effective. We searched 21 databases and 2 trial registers and undertook forwards and backwards citation chasing, author contact and other supplementary search methods. Searches identified all literature published to June 2021. All screening was undertaken in duplicate and independently, and we quality appraised all included studies.

Results

We included 247 reports (68 outcome evaluations, 137 process evaluations). Synthesis of intervention components produced an intervention typology: single-component, curricular, multicomponent, and multilevel programmes. Synthesis of intervention theories suggested that interventions aiming to increase students' sense of school belonging and sense of safety in the school building could encourage increased learning of prosocial skills and increased prosocial peer norms, and so potentially reducing dating and relationship violence and gender-based violence. Synthesis of factors affecting delivery highlighted school organisation and leaders who believed in the importance of addressing dating and relationship violence/gender-based violence, along with time and resources to deliver the interventions. The ease with which the intervention could be delivered and modified was also important. Meta-analysis found stronger evidence for intervention effectiveness in reducing dating and relationship violence than for gender-based violence, with significant long-term impacts on dating and relationship violence victimisation and perpetration, and some evidence that interventions in high-income countries could be effective for reducing victimisation and perpetration of gender-based violence in the long-term. Impacts on knowledge and attitudes were primarily short-term. Network meta-analysis did not suggest superiority of any intervention type. Moderation evidence suggested interventions reduced dating and relationship violence perpetration in boys more than girls, but reduced gender-based violence perpetration more in girls. Metaregression by intervention component did not explain heterogeneity in effectiveness, but qualitative comparative analysis suggested that reducing perpetration was important to reducing victimisation, and that perpetration could be reduced via focus on interpersonal skills, guided practice and (for gender-based violence) implementation of social structural components.

Limitations

Despite an exhaustive search, trials may have been missed and risk of publication bias was high for several analyses.

Conclusions

This is the most comprehensive systematic review of school-based interventions for dating and relationship violence and gender-based violence to date. It is clear that the prevention of dating and relationship violence and gender-based violence in schools will require longer-term investment to show benefit.

Future work

Future research is needed to understand why intervention effectiveness appears stronger for dating and relationship violence than gender-based violence.

Study registration

The study is registered as PROSPERO CRD42020190463.

Funding

This award was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Public Health Research programme (NIHR award ref: NIHR130144) and is published in full in Public Health Research; Vol. 12, No. 3. See the NIHR Funding and Awards website for further award information.

Adolescents' Perceptions of Sexuality: A Qualitative Study

Adolescents have a greater risk of acquiring sexually transmitted infections (STIs), which is a serious public health problem. Education is an effective strategy to improve adolescent sexual health outcomes. However, Spanish adolescents have a lack of sex education. The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions and opinions of a sample of adolescents regarding sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Photovoice is a research method that uses the search for images of everyday events with the intention of bringing about social change. An exploratory, descriptive design was used with a qualitative approach based on the Photovoice methodology. The sample consisted of 26 high school and baccalaureate students of Almería (Spain) selected through a convenience sample. The age of the participants ranged from 14 to 17 years, with a mean age of 15.31 years. Two main categories were extracted from the data analysis: 'Towards a culture of preventing STIs and promoting healthy sexual practices' and 'Adolescents' needs from their perspective'. In conclusion, numerous changes take place at the biopsychosocial level during adolescence that imply a need to explore their sexuality in depth. A lack of knowledge and a carefree attitude during sexual initiation can increase the risk of developing STIs. The study's adolescents stated that they do not have adequate sex education to acquire sufficient knowledge about sexuality and sexual health, and therefore, request that the traditional format be modified in order to achieve better results.

Young People’s Voices and Science for Overcoming Toxic Relationships Represented in Sex Education

The scientific literature has presented evidence of how fiction series impact the socialisation of young people’s relationships. However, there is a gap in the evidence on how dialogic interactions overcome the negative impact of the fiction series on the socialisation of toxic relationships. This research analyses dialogic interactions based on scientific evidence related to toxic relationships that contribute to overcoming this type of relationship. First, we developed a communicative content analysis of eight episodes of one of the most-watched fiction series by young people, Sex Education. After that, we conducted four communicative interviews with the young audience to collect their voices about the impact of these toxic relationships represented in this fiction series in their daily conversations. The results indicate that in such cases, there is a need to promote dialogic interactions about this fiction series, focusing the dialogue on which type of masculinity develops a toxic relationship and which, on the contrary, promotes healthy relationships.

Contributions of Socioneuroscience to Research on Coerced and Free Sexual-Affective Desire

Neuroscience has well evidenced that the environment and, more specifically, social experience, shapes and transforms the architecture and functioning of the brain and even its genes. However, in order to understand how that happens, which types of social interactions lead to different results in brain and behavior, neurosciences require the social sciences. The social sciences have already made important contributions to neuroscience, among which the behaviorist explanations of human learning are prominent and acknowledged by the most well-known neuroscientists today. Yet neurosciences require more inputs from the social sciences to make meaning of new findings about the brain that deal with some of the most profound human questions. However, when we look at the scientific and theoretical production throughout the history of social sciences, a great fragmentation can be observed, having little interdisciplinarity and little connection between what authors in the different disciplines are contributing. This can be well seen in the field of communicative interaction. Nonetheless, this fragmentation has been overcome via the theory of communicative acts, which integrates knowledge from language and interaction theories but goes one step further in incorporating other aspects of human communication and the role of context. The theory of communicative acts is very informative to neuroscience, and a central contribution in socioneuroscience that makes possible deepening of our understanding of most pressing social problems, such as free and coerced sexual-affective desire, and achieving social and political impact toward their solution. This manuscript shows that socioneuroscience is an interdisciplinary frontier in which the dialogue between all social sciences and all natural sciences opens up an opportunity to integrate different levels of analysis in several sciences to ultimately achieve social impact regarding the most urgent human problems.

Evidence of Gender Violence Negative Impact on Health as a Lever to Change Adolescents' Attitudes and Preferences towards Dominant Traditional Masculinities

Women and girls experience gender violence from a young age. Scientific research has presented evidence of the negative impact of toxic relationships and toxic stress on physical and psychological health. However, less is known on how this evidence can have a preventive effect. Knowing these impacts can be important for women and girls to decide the type of affective-sexual relationships they want to have, and even transform their attraction towards different types of masculinity. This study presents results from the MEMO4LOVE project. Researchers use mixed-methods approaches, including a questionnaire (n = 141) to study adolescents' peer groups' interactions that promoted healthy or toxic affective-sexual relationships, and five communicative focus groups with boys and girls to analyze how these interactions can be transformed by sharing scientific knowledge on the effects of violent relationships with adolescents. The results showed the impact of sharing with adolescents the evidence of the adverse effects of toxic relationships with violent masculinities on health. The peer group's transformation occurred: non-violent boys gained self-confidence, and girls redirected or reinforced their attraction to non-violent boys. These results suggest the potential positive effects of knowing the impacts of toxic relationships on girls' health.

The Consequences of Disdainful Hook-Ups for Later Egalitarian Relationships of Girls

Introduction: There is extensive research about the consequences that toxic relationships with dominant masculinities have on different areas of women’s lives, including how they can influence future relationships they establish. Some of these women reproduce toxic relationships with dominant masculinities in their following relationships, and some women start to establish sexual-affective relationships with non-dominant masculinity models. However, less is known about the specific consequences in non-dominant masculinities who establish relationships with women who have not overcome the false memory of excitement regarding their toxic relationships. Methodology: In order to shed light on the consequences for non-dominant masculinities, eight communicative interviews were conducted with four women and four men. Results: The main findings indicate that those female participants who have kept an exciting memory of toxic relationships, when in an equal relationship, have attitudes of disdain towards non-dominant masculinities. They may ridicule them, not value their personal or intellectual abilities, talk down to them, and even negatively value their sexual aptitudes. Discussion: The application of the previous literature to our results leads to establishing the work on memories of relationships that have led to socialization in violent relationships as a preventive approach. Conclusion: The previously mentioned attitudes could generate health problems for non-dominant masculinities engaged in these relationships.

I Do It, but I Decide With Whom

Social interactions and communication shape the desires and preferences of men and women. While it is true that some men have modified their behavior due to feminist women, the same happened with some women, who changed attraction patterns thanks to new alternative masculinities (NAM). This study examines the latter, focusing on social interactions mediated by language, as a crucial element to impact and change the desires of people. For this purpose, six autobiographical interviews were conducted with women aged 19–39 years, from two different countries and continents, paying attention to the narratives of their sexual-affective relationships. Using the communicative methodology, interactions have been analyzed from verbal communication and nonverbal communication, based on the consequences of the actions rather than intentionality. The results of this study show how dialogic communicative acts with NAMs influenced some women who first defended or justified actions of male perpetrators to later prefer to support female survivors against their perpetrators. Analysis reveals that communicative acts grounded in such language that enacted the desire of NAM for women of solidarity have shaped some memories of women of relationships with dominant traditional masculinities (DTM) and, ultimately, contributed to change their attraction and election patterns.

"Three Steps Above Heaven? Really? That's All Tactic!" New Alternative Masculinities Dismantling Dominant Traditional Masculinity's Strategies

Research on preventive socialization of gender violence has contributed abundant empirical evidence that attraction to violence is common among adolescents. This has meant that “bad guys,” or those who reflect the Dominant Traditional Masculinity (DTM) model, are chiefly perceived as appealing, while “good guys” are perceived as good friends but not desirable. The mainstream media tends to reproduce this traditional model of affective-sexual relationships, which has harmful effects on young girls concerning gender and sexuality. However, New Alternative Masculinity men are challenging this traditional and unsatisfactory model of affective-sexual relationships. The 2010 Spanish version of the movie Three Steps above Heaven, a good example of this kind of media product, has proven to greatly impact communicative acts among adolescents. This article explores how this influence on adolescents is because the communicative acts about Hache – the main character in the movie – are full of the language of desire, and his own communicative acts are full of violence. On the one hand, we analyze how Three Steps above Heaven employs communicative acts to enhance the attractiveness of DTM. On the other hand, based on the evidence gathered in a communicative focus group (CFG) addressed to 15- and 16-year-old female adolescents, we analyze how New Alternative Masculinity men are demystifying Hache and the idea of having a “Three Steps Above Heaven” by demonstrating with the powerful language of desire that men like him employ farce strategies. The article includes evidence from interventions with adolescents where discussion of movies like this, with the involvement of New Alternative Masculinity men and grounded in the language of desire, can transform the perception about the sexual-affective relationship in the movie, thus counteracting their negative influence in terms of attraction to violence.

"No More Insecurities": New Alternative Masculinities' Communicative Acts Generate Desire and Equality to Obliterate Offensive Sexual Statements

To justify attraction to Dominant Traditional Masculinities (DTM) and lack of attraction to non-aggressive men, some women defend opinions such as "there are no frigid women, only inexperienced men". Such statements generate a large amount of sexual-affective insecurity in oppressed men and contribute to decoupling desire and ethics in sexual-affective relationships, which, in turn, reinforces a model of attraction to traditional masculinities that use coercion, thus perpetuating gender-based violence. New Alternative Masculinities (NAM) represent a type of masculinity that reacts to reverse such consequences with communicative acts, in which they state that women who support such discourses have never met a NAM man or have never experienced a successful sexual-affective relationship where passion, love, desire, and equality are all included. This article presents data analyzing these communicative acts (exclusory and transformative; language employed and consequences) to ultimately find the key to NAM communication that would contribute to changing attraction patterns. The data was collected using communicative daily life stories of three heterosexual white men and one heterosexual white woman, between the ages of 30 and 40. Findings emphasize the importance of self-confidence manifested by NAM men when communicating about sex and facing these offensive mottos in the presence of other men and women. Findings also demonstrate that supportive egalitarian relationships encourage the emergence of self-confidence in NAM men and that NAM men's self-confident communicative acts foster healthy relationships and obliterate coercive ones.

Dialogic Feminist Gathering and the Prevention of Gender Violence in Girls With Intellectual Disabilities

Adolescent gender-based violence prevention and sexuality education is a topic of current concern given the increasing numbers of violence directed at girls. International organizations indicate that one in three girls aged 15 to 19 have experienced gender-based violence in their sexual relationships that this risk may be as much as 3-4 times higher for girls with disabilities. Following the good results obtained in the research project "Free_Teen_Desire" led by the University of Cambridge and funded by the Marie Curie Actions Program in the prevention of gender violence in adolescents through Dialogic Feminist Gatherings (DFG), the aim of study is to analyze Its transfer and impact on adolescent girls with intellectual disabilities. The DFGs are here understood as generators of a more dialogic environment for girls in general and we wonder if and how It is extended to the context of girls with disabilities. Thus, the research takes the form of a case study with a communicative approach on a DFGs. The intervention is carried out in a special school located in Valencia during the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 academic years with a group of 19 non-mixed female students, female teachers, and the mother of one of the students. The study analyzes which are the transfer criteria to incorporate the DFGs in a special education context and what is their impact on the prevention of gender violence in girls with disabilities. The data collection techniques consist of two in-depth interviews, analysis of the field diary of 24 intervention sessions and a focus group with seven teachers. It is demonstrated that DFGs are successfully transferred to the special education context of the case study. The results show how contexts of safety, solidarity and friendship are generated which protect adolescent girls with disabilities from relationships with gender violence.

Dating Violence: Idealization of Love and Romantic Myths in Spanish Adolescents

Dating violence is a significant problem among adolescents. It encompasses a variety of violent behavior, from verbal abuse to physical and sexual abuse, from threats to rape and murder. Among young people, idealization of love and romantic myths are very common as a consequence of our culture and society, which lead them to develop dysfunctional relationships that somehow favor and facilitate partner violence and sexist ideas in daily life. Education is the basic tool to eradicate discrimination and violence against women. The objective of this study is to explore the false myths of romantic love in adolescents and their related factors. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 16–19-year-old teenagers (n = 180), through questionnaires and by employing the romantic love myths scale, the ambivalent sexism inventory, and the love attitudes scale. Adolescents accepted to a greater degree the love myths associated with idealization than those related to abuse with scale values of Med = 2.72, SD = 0.55, and Med = 1.34, SD = 0.68, respectively. Designed models predict love idealization on the basis of benevolent sexism (β = 0.03; CI 95% = 0.021–0.039), religion (β = 0.198; CI 95% = 0.047–0.349), passionate love (β = 0.038; CI 95% = 0.015–0.061), practical love (β = 0.024; CI 95% = 0.001–0.047), and friendly love (β = 0.036; CI 95% = 0.014–0.058). Hostile sexism and undergraduate studies were associated with the myths that relate love and abuse (β = 0.19; CI 95% = 0.007–0.031, β = 0.208; CI 95% = 0.001–0.414, respectively).

"Tell Someone," to Both Women and Men

Contrary to an understanding of the struggle against gender violence as placing men and women in opposition to one another, victims have always been supported by both women and men. To prevent violence is important to know not only which message should be transmitted but also how the dialogue should unfold, and the characteristics of the people engaging in that dialogue. Because of the existing association between attraction and violence in our society, the unity of the language of ethics and the language of desire in such dialogue has become a key element in the struggle against gender violence. This study identifies the strong presence of communicative acts that unify these languages in the women (feminism) and men (New Alternative Masculinities) who are successful in this struggle. The opposition to violence that they defend guide their own desires, which are transmitted through their communicative acts to the people around them.

Gender violence among youth: an effective program of preventive socialization to address a public health problem

Gender violence among youth is a worldwide public health problem. Youth is increasingly exposed to violence in sexual-affective relationships, both stable and sporadic, and the age of victimization decreases. This adverse life experience affects many areas of youth's life, such as education, social relationships and, especially, their physical and mental health, with consequences that can be very harmful in the short and long-term. This situation has given rise to many anti-violence programs for adolescents and youth, yet as some worldwide prestigious organizations, like the American Psychological Association, have pointed out, many of those programs do not work. In this article, we present a program of preventive socialization of gender violence addressed to adolescents that has proven effectiveness. The program was composed of seven interventions based on the social impact of the evidence on preventive socialization of gender violence. It was applied at a group level in groups of 15-16 years old teenagers in three high schools in Barcelona. The interventions were conducted over a period of one school year and shared the trait of discussing research evidence on preventive socialization of gender violence with the youth through egalitarian dialogue. These interventions have proved to have a preventive effect of gender violence victimization on the participating teenagers by raising their critical consciousness regarding a coercive dominant discourse in society that associates attractiveness and violence, supporting the transformation of their memories of violent sexual-affective relationships, and providing them tools to better analyze their and their friends' sexual-affective relationships along the lines of identifying gender violence and being more prepared to help others in this regard. The manuscript describes every intervention applied.

The Zero Violence Brave Club: A Successful Intervention to Prevent and Address Bullying in Schools

Bullying among peers in schools is a growing problem affecting children and adolescents from an early age worldwide. The consequences of bullying victimization in the emotional development of children and youth and their academic achievement are adverse for them and the rest of the school community, with its negative impact extending into the mid and long run. The Zero Violence Brave Club is implemented in schools in the framework of the Dialogic Model of Violence Prevention, a successful educational action according to the INCLUD-ED project [Strategies for inclusion and social cohesion in Europe from Education] (6th Framework Program of Research of the European Commission). The Zero Violence Brave Club has decreased peer bullying in schools by establishing and cultivating a culture of zero tolerance to violence in educational centers located in diverse socioeconomic and cultural contexts. This evidence-based intervention is grounded in the principle that only the person who denounces violence suffered by a peer and takes a stand always on the victim's side-and those who support her or him-against the aggressor can be considered brave. This article reports a qualitative study of the Zero Violence Brave Club as a successful intervention in seven schools in Spain. The schools are diverse in terms of public or private ownership, religious or lay background, and population served (different proportions of cultural minorities and students with special needs), challenging the misconception that the impact of educational interventions depends on the context. Interviews were conducted with teachers in the schools implementing the Zero Violence Brave Club in their class, using the communicative methodology of research. The results shed light on specific mechanisms through which the Zero Violence Brave Club prevents and responds to bullying in schools, such as emptying of social attractiveness any aggressive behaviors or attitudes. Benefits on mental health and psychological wellbeing are also reported.

Grassroots community actors leading the way in the prevention of youth violent radicalization

Violence-free family ties, non-violent peers or attachment to society have been pointed out as protective factors against different types of extremism and violent radicalization by international literature. However, more detail needs to be provided about which specific aspects within these realms (friendship/family/community) are effective in challenging violence and how they operate in practice. Recent research conducted under the framework of the PROTON project (Horizon 2020) has analyzed the social and ethical impacts of counter-terrorism and organized crime policies in six European countries. In this article we discuss some identified common features among practices that, developed by organized actors operating at the local level (e.g.: grassroots-based associations, educational institutions, other type of organized networks for prevention, NGOs), are contributing to preventing youth violent radicalization, a phenomenon of growing concern in Europe and beyond. Standing on a solid rejection to violence, these shared features are the following: a bottom-up approach in setting allies with key stakeholders from the community or/and family members to intervene; the promotion of trustworthy and healthy friendship relationships; debunking the lure surrounding violent subjects ("false heroes") and violence in the different contexts, especially in the socioeducational one.

Dialogic Feminist Gatherings: Impact of the Preventive Socialization of Gender-Based Violence on Adolescent Girls in Out-of-Home Care

Gender-based violence is a social scourge with an increasing incidence at younger ages. Many studies have focused on finding effective solutions for overcoming this problem; however, few studies have analyzed the contribution of interactive learning environments to gender-based violence prevention. This article attempts to fill this gap by showing the impact of Dialogic Feminist Gatherings on the preventive socialization against gender-based violence toward adolescent girls (aged 15–18) who are in out-of-home care and living in shelters—part of the institutional protection system—for different reasons that are primarily associated with violence and a lack of family protection. This qualitative study was conducted using the communicative methodology involving fifteen daily life stories that analyze the dialogues and reflections produced among the girls during Dialogic Feminist Gatherings. The results show the acquisition of competencies in aspects such as attraction, election, and equality in sexual-affective relationships. These dimensions, when developed through Dialogic Feminist Gatherings, are consistent with the scientific literature that characterized them as protective factors against gender-based violence. This study concludes by contrasting participants’ daily life reality with scientific evidence, which makes possible new methods of the preventive socialization against gender-based violence for adolescent girls in out-of-home care.