The incidence of violence in dating relationships has a significant impact on young people, including decreased mental and physical health. This review is the first to provide a quantitative synthesis of empirical evaluations of schoolbased programs implemented in middle and high schools that sought to prevent or reduce incidents of dating violence. After a systematic search and screening procedure, a meta-analysis of 23 studies was used to examine the effects of school-based programs. Results indicated school-based programs influence dating violence knowledge (g = 0 22. , 95% confidence interval [0.05, 0.39]) and attitudes (g = 0 14. , 95% confidence interval [0.10, 0.19]); however, to date, the results for dating violence perpetration and victimization indicate programs are not affecting these behaviors to a significant extent. The results of this review are encouraging, but they also highlight the need for modifications to dating violence prevention programs including the incorporation of skill-building components and a need to address the role of bystanders.

Bullying perpetration and sexual harassment perpetration among adolescents are major public health issues. However, few studies have addressed the empirical link between being a perpetrator of bullying and subsequent sexual harassment perpetration among early adolescents in the literature. Homophobic teasing has been shown to be common among middle school youth and was tested as a moderator of the link between bullying and sexual harassment perpetration in this 2-year longitudinal study. More specifically, the present study tests the Bully–Sexual Violence Pathway theory, which posits that adolescent bullies who also participate in homophobic name-calling toward peers are more likely to perpetrate sexual harassment over time. Findings from logistical regression analyses (n = 979, 5th–7th graders) reveal an association between bullying in early middle school and sexual harassment in later middle school, and results support the Bully–Sexual Violence Pathway model, with homophobic teasing as a moderator, for boys only. Results suggest that to prevent bully perpetration and its later association with sexual harassment perpetration, prevention programs should address the use of homophobic epithets.

Objective: To identify subgroups of youth who experience multiple forms of victimization at school and to evaluate how these subgroups vary in their experiences of family violence, depression, and alcohol and drug use. Method: Cluster analysis of verbal/physical aggression victimization, relational aggression victimization, sexual harassment victimization, and homophobic name-calling victimization scales among 992 early adolescents (5th to 8th grades). Results: As hypothesized, 4 distinct clusters emerged: non- or minimal-victims, relational victims, homophobic name-calling victims, and peer polyvictims. Relational and polyvictim clusters were more likely to endorse witnessing domestic violence and being physically or sexually abused at home; depression, alcohol, and drug use, when compared to non- or minimal-victims or homophobic name-calling victims. Conclusions: Findings validate the importance of distinguishing among forms of peer victimization given the heterogeneity among youths' experience of violence, and the relations with familial victimization and psychological consequences. Data from the current study advance our understanding of shared and nonshared correlates and consequences across different forms of peer victimization among a relatively young middle school sample. These findings ultimately inform more precise targets for intervention, such as victimization directed at damaging one's relationship or victimization directed at one's gender.

This Campbell systematic review examines the effectiveness of school‐based interventions to reduce or prevent violence in intimate relationships. The review focused on programmes to change attitudes and beliefs, reduce perpetration and victimization, and change behaviours. The systematic review included 23 studies. Prevention programmes improve young people's knowledge about, and attitudes towards, dating violence. These effects were sustained at follow up. Students in the intervention group showed moderate increases in knowledge about dating violence, a lower acceptance of stereotypical ‘rape myths’, and moderate improvements in appropriately resolving conflicts in interpersonal relationships. A limited number of studies examined the effects of school‐based programmes on the amount of violence perpetrated and on victimization. These studies suggest that prevention programmes have little impact on behaviour. Executive summary/Abstract BACKGROUNDThe incidence of psychological, physical, and sexual violence in intimate dating relationships has a significant impact on young people. These issues are of great concern to researchers, educators, and administrators who strive to help youth be happy and healthy. This review focused on prevention and intervention efforts implemented in schools that sought to reduce or prevent incidents of dating violence. OBJECTIVESThe main objective of this review was to evaluate and synthesize the efficacy of school‐based interventions that sought to reduce or prevent teen dating violence or sexual violence in intimate relationships. Specifically this review evaluated the impact of dating violence prevention programs implemented in middle and high schools on changing attitudes or beliefs supportive of teen dating violence, reducing incidents of dating violence perpetration, or reducing incidents of dating violence victimization. Additionally, this review examined potential substantive or methodological variables (e.g., program characteristics, age, gender, location) that moderated the effect sizes. SEARCH STRATEGYAn extensive search strategy was used to identify qualifying studies. Various electronic bibliographic databases were searched in July 2013, along with government databases, grey literature databases, and citations in other reviews. In addition, we searched the reference lists of primary studies, hand searched relevant journals, and searched the Internet using Google and Google Scholar. We also contacted researchers who have published extensively in the area of teen dating violence and researchers who have received grants to implement teen dating violence prevention programs to identify studies in press or in preparation. Neither language nor date restrictions were applied to the searches. SELECTION CRITERIAStudies were required to meet several criteria to be eligible for inclusion. Studies must: have a well‐defined control group. include a school‐based intervention, implemented with students between 4th and 12th grade. have a primary goal of reducing or preventing teen dating ...