The impact of state policy on teen dating violence prevalence

Abstract

Teen dating violence (TDV) is a serious public health concern that is associated with many negative effects. Studies on TDV prevention most often focus on the evaluation of prevention programs in school and community settings. Much less is known about the effects of policy on TDV prevalence. This study tests a model to explain whether stronger laws regarding TDV, specifically civil protection orders, have an impact on TDV rates in states. Results show that stronger policy, Democratic party control of the governor'so f fice, and higher state median income are associated with lower rates of TDV. This study provides solid information regarding the role of civil protection orders as a means of TDV prevention and adds to our knowledge of the efficacy of state-level TDV policy. The information can lead to increased vigor on the part of advocates to strive for specific provisions in the law and to work for gubernatorial candidates who will support such laws.

Invisibilización de la violencia en el noviazgo en Chile: evidencia desde la investigación empírica

“…(National Conference of State Legislatures, 2017). Aunque en algunos casos hay diferencias en el grado de aplicación efectiva de las leyes de violencia contra la mujer en jóvenes (Largio, 2007), se ha comprobado que una política más estricta, un mayor ingreso medio y el control del gobierno subnacional del Partido Demócrata se asocian a una menor prevalencia de la violencia entre parejas adolescentes (Hoefer, Black & Ricard, 2015). Es importante distinguir entre la existencia de leyes y la ejecución de programas, en lo que claramente hay una mayor consolidación fuera de Iberoamérica.…”

Graduating MSW Students’ Recommended Interventions for Teen Dating Violence: A Descriptive Analysis

“…A lack of responses reflecting macro-level interventions may reflect the wording of the question asked (i.e., focusing on the intervention one would conduct). Still, social workers should be aware of their own state's policies concerning protective orders for adolescents, advocating on behalf of such policies as supported by research (Hoefer, Black, & Ricard, 2015). Similarly, rather than advocate for school-level interventions, graduating MSW students in this study focused primarily on the provision of individual education and counseling aimed at improving the relationship health of youth.…”

Determinants of State Firearms Policy Variation

“…While some sort of selection process is shared by all state to state comparative research, the actual gathering of data can vary significantly depending on the field of study, however data collection often falls in one of several categories. The first commonly used by researchers in comparative policy research is collection through primary research as seen in studies conducted by Hemenway et al 71 or Azrael et al 72 in the use of targeted surveys, while other times gathering data is more reliant on secondary sources as evidenced by Jennings 73 ; lastly data can be seen as coming from third party sources as seen by Hoefer, who used grades of dating violence policies given to all states by an advocacy group dealing with dating violence called 'Break the Cycle" 74 or Zimring who used polls from Project Vote Smart in determining the influence of gender in legislative actions regarding firearms 75 . However, it can generally be said that most studies gather data from several sources such as field work, surveys, or third party data sets.…”

“…More often than not when dealing with quantifiable data a letter grade or score is assigned to each case study as seen by Campbell and Mazzoni 76 . While some studies rely on a particular linear model as employed by Hoefer 77 , other analysis can be seen as consisting of both is quantitative correlations as well as linear and non-linear regression models as 24 seen by Dillard 78 Emerson 79 . However, due to the comparative nature of the studies analysis of the data revolve entirely around the comparisons of the case studies against one another in answering the questions posed by the authors.…”