180174 Using CBPR to explore rural, African American adolescents' knowledge, perceptions, and beliefs about adolescent dating violence: Implications for risky sexual behavior and mental health

Tuesday, October 28, 2008: 5:15 PM

Dionne M. Smith, PhD, MAEd, NCC , School of Public Health/ Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Mysha Wynn, MA , Executive Director, Project Momentum, Inc., Rocky Mount, NC
Donald Parker, BA , Project Momentum, Inc., Rocky Mount, NC
Melvin R. Muhammad, AA , Project Momentum, Inc., Rocky Mount, NC
Background: Adolescent dating violence (ADV) is a public health issue that continues to impact the lives of youth, especially rural African-Americans. Few ADV risk reduction interventions have targeted this population, and even fewer have used a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach. Additionally, little attention has been given to multi-level determinants that impact ADV. Academic and community partnerships can play valuable roles in ADV prevention research, by offering unique opportunities to combine expertise to develop culturally appropriate and sustainable interventions.

Objectives:To explore rural African American adolescent's knowledge, perceptions, and beliefs about ADV and the implications for risky sexual behavior and mental health.

Methods: We report data from semi-structured individual interviews with older adolescents aged 18-21 years. Constant comparative analysis was performed by a research team using the principles of grounded theory.

Results: Our findings indicate the importance of understanding rural African American adolescent's knowledge, perceptions and beliefs about dating violence in an effort to inform prevention efforts designed to reduce dating violence, risky sexual behavior that can ultimately lead to the acquisition of sexually transmitted infections, and negative mental health outcomes. ADV prevention interventions at both the community and school levels can play positive roles in reducing the rates of ADV in rural communities.

Conclusions: Our findings can inform the development of ADV prevention interventions at both the community and school levels. Community and academic partnerships can play integral roles in ensuring that the voices of the target population are included in the entire research and intervention design process.

Learning Objectives:
1. To articulate the knowledge, perceptions, and beliefs among rural, African American adolescents about dating violence. 2. To discuss the implications of ADV on risky sexual behavior and mental health. 3. To discuss multi-level determinants that impact adolescent dating violence in rural communities. 4. To discuss the importance of using a community-based participatory research approach to inform the development of effective, culturally appropriate and sustainable adolescent dating violence prevention interventions.

Keywords: Adolescents, Violence Prevention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the principal investigator for this research project. I played substantial roles in research design, data collection and analysis, and dissemination.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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