An Evaluation of a School-based, Peer-facilitated, Healthy Relationship Program for At-Risk Adolescents

Abstract

There are few evaluations of peer-facilitated teenage dating violence prevention programs in the literature. To begin to address this gap, this project assessed the effectiveness of a school-based, peer-facilitated healthy relationships program among academically at-risk students. Two hundred and ninety-one ninth graders of mixed race and gender participated in a five-session healthy relationships program that had been adapted to address concerns of cultural relevance. Findings from analyses of variance showed that program participants made statistically significant improvements from pretest to posttest, across demographics of race and gender. Results support the value of developing culturally responsive curricula and using peer-facilitated programming to address teenage dating violence in school-based healthy relationship programs.