The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of the Expect Respect: Preventing Teen Dating Violence program offered to high school students in one county in the state of Ohio. High school student participants in each treatment group provided demographic information, attitudes, and experiences of teen dating violence (TDV) via a background information form, the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory (CADRI) (Wolfe, Scott, Reitzel-Jaffe, Wekerle, Grasley & Straatman, 2001) and the Attitudes Toward Dating Violence Scales (ATDV) (Price, Byers, & the Dating Violence Research Team, 1999) to determine the effect of the program directly after its completion and its short term effect three full weeks after the program concluded.
Only 141 valid cases were available for analysis using the CADRI, too few to determine statistical significance in immediate and short term effects of the program on participants' experiences. Two hundred seventy two students provided responses on the ATDV scales to determine effects of the program on participants' attitudes toward TDV.
A Repeated Measures MANOVA analysis resulted in a statistically significant difference between treatment groups' ATDV scores initially after the program and across time. This suggests that the program did lower participants' tolerance of TDV initially, and three weeks after the program concluded. In addition, male participants' scores were consistently higher than females' scores, suggesting that males have a consistently higher tolerance of TDV than females.
This research is the first step toward building an effective teen dating violence prevention program. With efficacy of the program indicated for the participants in this study, it is possible that other students in the county would benefit from this program. Additional research in other areas of the state and country are needed to continue to determine the efficacy of the Expect Respect: Preventing Teen Dating Violence program for high school students.