Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 Domestic Abuse Prevention: Emerging findings from the Boys to Men Project Claire Fox, Mary Louise Corr, Keele University David Gadd, Manchester University In collaboration with Arch

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 Policy context VAWG - DCSF Report (2010) HO Strategy: –Schools should include the issue within PSHE –PSHE to be compulsory –National campaign, e.g. This is abuse VAWG Action Plan (2011): –Awareness raising campaign – teenage relationship violence –Issue of sexual consent to be covered in PSHE

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 Introduction 84% of secondary school pupils want it - schools best place (Mullender, 2000) A number of school-based prevention programmes have been developed in the UK But evidence as to the effectiveness of such programmes is limited The main aim of the research was to evaluate the effectiveness of RwF

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 Evaluations in the US Pre and post-test control group designs Dating violence programmes Foshee et al. (1998): –Pre and post test evaluation with treatment and control conditions, N = 1700 –Less abuse with the effect mediated by changes in DV norms, gender stereotyping and awareness of services

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 Evaluations in the US (cont.) Jaycox et al. (2006): –Randomized experimental control group design with N = 2,000+ –Improvements in knowledge, less acceptance of F-M violence and greater likelihood of seeking help –Some of the improvements maintained at 6- month FU Floor effects – how to capture a shift to more extreme disapproval of violence?

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 Evaluations in the UK Fairly small-scale, mixed methods Pre and post test designs –Individual item analyses –E.g. comparisons % said its OK before and % after –Descriptive statistics only Examples: –Bell and Stanley (2006) –Evaluations of VAW initiative projects (Hester & Westmarland, 2005): –Evaluation of Zero Tolerance (Scottish Executive, 2002) –Evaluation of Trust

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 RwF: The Programme Primary-age and secondary-age children It looks at how positive relationships can be formed It aims to give children the knowledge, skills and advice to enable them to recognise an abusive relationship and seek help The sessions focus on: what abuse is the different types of abuse how it makes people feel the difficulties in leaving an abusive relationship, how to break out of an abusive relationship and what support is available.

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 The ADV Questionnaire We drew inspiration from the Normative Beliefs about Aggression Scale – NOBAGS, developed for elementary- age children (Huesmann & Guerra, 1997). The Attitudes towards Domestic Violence Questionnaire: 12 questions which aim to capture young peoples thoughts about how wrong it is for a man to hit a woman and also a woman to hit a man, under certain conditions –e.g. Do you think it is OK for a man to hit his partner/wife if HE says he is sorry afterwards? –e.g. Suppose a man cheats on his wife/partner with another woman, do you think it is wrong for her to hit him? –Each question is followed by a four-point scale – 1 = its really wrong, 2 = its sort of wrong, 3 = its sort of OK, 4 = its perfectly OK

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 Pilot evaluation children –347 primary-age, 195 secondary-age ADV completed in first and final session (pre and post-test) Significant improvement in childrens attitudes pre to post-test Need for a control group design

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 From Boys to Men Why do some boys grow up to be domestic abuse perpetrators when others do not? How can we change the attitudes and feelings that give rise to abusive tendencies among adolescents? Mixed-method study: –Stage 1: Evaluation of RwF –Stage 2: Focus groups with young people –Stage 3: In-depth interviews with boys at risk of becoming perpetrators

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 Stage year 9 children 13 secondary schools –7 intervention (26 classes) –6 control (25 classes) 548 male and 575 female (37 missing) ADV completed in first and final session (pre and post-test): –N = 870 (446 intervention, 424 control) And measures of help-seeking Experience questions completed at pre-test only

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 Experience questions Three sections: –Victimisation (10 questions) –Perpetration (10 questions) –Witnessing (8 questions) Response options: –Never, Once, More than Once? –If once or more than once has this happened in the last 12 months?

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 Experience questions (cont.) Behaviours: –Pushed, slapped, grabbed –Punched, kicked, choked, beaten up –Pressured or forced to have sex –Pressured or forced to do anything else sexual –Controlling behaviour: Stopped from seeing family/friends Told who cant speak to Checked up on who phoned or sent messages to

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 Results - Attitudes 40.7% reported that hitting a partner was OK in at least one of the circumstances –48.4% of boys compared to 33.3% of girls Which situations more acceptable? –F M if he hits her first (24.2% OK) –F M if he cheats on her (14.2% OK) –M F if she hits him first (13.4% OK) –M F if she cheats on him (8.7% OK)

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 Results - Victimisation Moderate physical (16.5%) Severe physical (4.3%) Forced/pressured sex (4.4%) –2.2% male, 5.5% female Forced/pressured other sexual (13.3%) –8.5% male, 13.6% female Controlling behaviours (27%)

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 Results - Perpetration Moderate physical (6.5%) Severe physical (1.9%) Forced/pressured sex (1.1%) Forced/pressured other sexual (3.4%) Controlling behaviours (15.2%)

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 Results - Witnessing Moderate physical (18.7%): –15.1% male, 21.4% female Severe physical (7.7%): –6.1% male, 9.4% female Controlling behaviours (17.8%): –12.6% male, 23.6% female

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 Pre – post test changes for attitudes

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 Pre – post test changes for help-seeking in relation to abuse in own relationship

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 Pre – post test changes for help-seeking in relation to witnessing DA

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 Summary/Conclusions Evidence that childrens attitudes do become less accepting of domestic violence More confident that due to RwF Are certain groups of children more or less receptive to the messages conveyed in RwF?

Preventing Domestic Abuse Workshop 2011 Contacts