Piloting a Family-Based Program for Preventing Adolescent Dating Violence

This study was designed to evaluate a program designed to help families prevent their teenagers from becoming involved in dating violence. A targeted frame approach was used to interview teenagers between the ages of 13 and 15 and their parents. The targeted approach was utilized in an attempt to contact 20% African-American respondents, as desired by the investigators. The study sought to gain both the teen and parent’s opinions on teen dating and teen dating abuse, how respondents communicate and solve problems within the family unit, and whether partner and/or dating abuse has been a problem in the household. The SRU conducted data collection from October 2004 to January 2005 and collected 515 complete interviews (both teen and parent completed interview) and 99 partial interviews (only one teen or parent completed interview). A population weight based data set was created and delivered to the client upon completion of the study.

Six months after the completion of the baseline interview, the UNC-CH Department of Health Behavior and Health Education conducted another round of interviews on the topic. This follow-up contacted the 515 respondents who completed both the teen and the parent interview. Similar questions were asked to both respondents. Data collection for this follow-up began in late spring of 2006 and was completed in summer of 2007. There were 350 completed pair interviews (both parent and teen).
Principal Investigator: Vangie Foshee, PhD
UNC-CH Department of Health Behavior and Health Education
SRU Investigators: William D. Kalsbeek, PhD
Robert Agans, PhD
Allison Deal, Sung-Heui Bae, Laura Trompak; Research Assistants
Dates: October 2004-March 2005
March 2006-July 2007

Studies: