Evaluation of the Start Strong: Building healthy teen relationships initiaitve to prevent teen dating violence among 11-to 14-year-olds

Teen dating violence (TDV) is a major public health problem. Nationally representative data indicate that 1 in 10 high schoolers report being hit, slapped, or physically hurt by a dating partner in the last year. However, despite these alarming data among high school students, there is scant research investigating these behaviors among middle school students.

This presentation reports on an independent evaluation of Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships (Start Strong), a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in collaboration with Futures Without Violence. Start Strong is being implemented in 11 sites and targets promotion of healthy relationships as a way to prevent TDV among 11-to 14-year-olds in middle schools. Program components include: TDV school curriculum, social marketing, parent activities, and policy efforts.

The quasi-experimental evaluation focused on 3 sites implementing the same curriculum (Safe Dates) with 7th graders. Comparison schools were selected that had similar demographics. This sample included 1430 7th graders (50.1% female; 24% White, 30% African American, 34% Latino, 12% multiple/other). Student data were collected on TDV risk and protective factors and behaviors.

Baseline data indicate alarming rates of past 6-month TDV victimization and perpetration, with 37% of middle schoolers reporting psychological violence victimization, 31% reporting electronic aggression victimization, 15% reporting physical violence victimization—and 20% reporting psychological violence perpetration, 18% reporting electronic dating aggression perpetration, and 12% reporting physical dating violence perpetration. This presentation will also highlight baseline findings for TDV risk and protective factors. Subsequent analyses will include three additional waves of data.