Post-Program Evaluation of Know Abuse: A Teen Dating Violence Prevention Program

Background: Know Abuse is a teen-dating violence prevention program that works to interrupt the cycle of abuse while educating high school students on healthy teen relationships, bullying and dating violence. Participants in Know Abuse have consistently given outstanding evaluations of the program and shown improvement in knowledge. This study will address the program’s impact in the school after implementation. Methods: Participants will include ten school partners of Know Abuse who have administered the program for at least two years and can speak to the post-program effects. Key administrators from these schools will complete a structured survey and be interviewed individually. Questions will examine general prevention abuse, student reporting of abuse, Know Abuse program’s effectiveness and school policies and procedures to address teen violence in the school environment. The survey data collection will be completed in March and sequential exploratory mixed methods will be used to analyze surveys and transcripts of the interviews. Results: Expected results are positive associations between length of program implementation and effectiveness of school policies and procedures associated with reporting, addressing and preventing abuse. The impact the program has on students understanding of types of abuse most prevalent in the high school environment, the challenges administrators face implementing abuse prevention programs and how Know Abuse’s partnerships have led to school polices and increased awareness around abuse prevention. Conclusions: While Know Abuse has operated since 2001 under Expect Respect, this will be the first post-program evaluation of the impact and influences the abuse prevention program has made in schools.