Violence in intimate relationships in adolescents: effectiveness of an intervention by peers through forum theater

Abstract

Objective: The main goal was the peer evaluation of the effectiveness of a health education intervention, also seeking the characterization of violent behaviors experienced by teens in intimate relationships. Method: A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study was performed with a non-probabilistic sample of 197 teens of both genders without control group. The intervention performed consisted of one peer-run forum theater session about intimate violence in dating relationships of teens. Results: Boys reported being both victims and perpetrators of violent behaviors more frequently than girls. The sample reported more behaviors associated with victimization than perpetration. Girls showed a higher level of knowledge on the topic and this knowledge increased after the intervention. Conclusion: Psychological violence is highly prevalent in dating relationships, particularly in cases of victimization. It seems essential to understand and act upon adolescents’ perceptions about what violent behavior is. This study confirmed the effectiveness of health education in acquiring knowledge on this topic.

Prevalence of teen dating violence in Europe: A systematic review of studies since 2010

“…Further, comparing the countries regarding sexual victimization (see Figure 2c), the highest rate for female adolescents was reported in the United Kingdom (41.0 %, Stanley et al., 2018) and the lowest in Portugal (7.8%, Dixe et al., 2020). For male adolescents, the highest sexual victimization rate was identified in Italy (39.0%, Stanley et al., 2018) and the lowest in the mixed European sample (6.1 %, Jankowiak et al., 2020).…”

“…In terms of the country comparison in physical TDV (see Figure 2b), the highest female victimization rate was reported for Spanish adolescents (32.9 %, Fernández‐González et al., 2013) and the lowest for Portuguese adolescents (4.7%, Dixe et al., 2020). For males, the highest victimization rate of physical violence was identified in Spain (29.8%, Fernández‐González et al., 2013) and the lowest in the mixed European sample (7.3%, Jankowiak et al., 2020).…”

“…Regarding the comparison of perpetration of physical violence between the countries, the highest rate for female adolescents was found in Spain (46.0%, Muñoz‐Rivas et al., 2010), and the lowest in Portugal (3.1 %, Dixe et al., 2020) (see Figure 3b). The highest rate of physical violence perpetration for male adolescents was identified in Spain (37.0%, Muñoz‐Rivas et al., 2010), and the lowest in Germany (4.8%, Beckmann et al., 2019).…”

“…While most of the studies tested gender differences, n = 4 studies did not provide separate data for female and male adolescents (Cuadrado‐Gordillo et al., 2020; Dosil et al., 2019; García‐Díaz et al., 2018; Sebastián et al., 2014), n = 7 studies reported separate data for female and male adolescents but gender differences were not tested (Archer et al., 2010; Dixe et al., 2020; Esparza‐Martínez et al., 2019 5 ; Fernández‐Fuertes & Fuertes, 2010; Fernández‐Fuertes et al., 2020; Fernández‐González et al., 2013; Young et al., 2018), n = 1 study reported clusters among couples (Burk & Seiffge‐Krenke, 2015), and n = 1 study examined males only (Diaz‐Aguado & Martinez, 2015).…”

“…Five samples, two from Germany (Beckmann et al., 2019; Kliem et al., 2018) and three from Spain (Calvete et al., 2016; Cava et al., 2015; Cava, Martínez‐Ferrer, et al., 2020), met all criteria of quality and achieved a total score of 0. Six samples, one from Germany (Blättner et al., 2015), two from Spain (Dosil et al., 2019; Fernández‐González et al., 2013), two from the United Kingdom (Stanley et al., 2018; Young et al., 2018), and one from Italy (Stanley et al., 2018) scored 4, and three further samples, one from Belgium (Glowacz et al., 2018), one from Portugal (Dixe et al., 2020), and one from Spain (Sebastián et al., 2014), scored 5. All other studies presented 1, 2, or 3 points.…”