Trial of a Middle School Coach Gender Violence Prevention Program

Summary

This cluster-randomized school-based study will examine the effectiveness of a program for the primary prevention of perpetration of teen dating violence and sexual violence among middle school male athletes. Engaging men and boys in preventing violence against women and girls is recognized by major global health organizations as a critical public health strategy. "Coaching Boys into Men" is a theory- and evidence based program intended to alter gender norms that foster teen dating violence/sexual violence perpetration, promote bystander intervention, and reduce teen dating violence/sexual violence perpetration. Coaches receive a 60-minute training and biweekly check-in from a violence prevention advocate to administer the intervention to their athletes via 12 mini-lessons conducted weekly throughout a sport season. In a randomized trial of program effectiveness among high school athletes (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CE001561-01, PI Miller), male athletes receiving the program demonstrated increased positive bystander intervention behaviors and less verbal abuse perpetration compared to controls. This project seeks to test the effectiveness of this program with younger male athletes in grades 6-8.The innovations are three-fold: (1) testing the efficacy of a novel teen dating violence/sexual violence prevention program for middle school male athletes; (2) training athletic coaches in Teen Dating Violence/Sexual Violence prevention thus implementing primary prevention that does not rely on teachers or classroom time; and (3) integrating the goal of changing gender norms with the technique of a bystander intervention approach to reduce teen dating violence/sexual violence prevention. The experimental design involves a 2-armed cluster randomized- controlled trial in 41 middle schools (38 clusters) in Pennsylvania. Schools will be randomly assigned to either intervention or control (standard coaching) condition. Coaches in intervention schools will receive Coaching Boys into Men training. Baseline surveys will be collected for all intervention and control site athletes entering grades 6-8 at the start of each sports seasons across Year 1 (Time 1; N= 973 athletes). Follow up surveys will be collected at the end of each sports season (Time 2). All participating athletes will be re-surveyed 12 months after baseline (Time 3).

Conditions

• Violence
• Abuse

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

"Coaching Boys into Men" program

"Coaching Boys into Men" program consists of 60 minute training for high school coaches led by a violence prevention advocate to introduce coaches to the rational for Coaching Boys into Men and the Coaching Boys into Men Coaches Kit. The coaches use this Coaching Boys into Men toolkit to provide weekly discussions with their athletes (generally 10-15 minute mini-sessions) throughout their athletic season (11 weeks). Discussion topics include how to prevent disrespectful and harmful behaviors towards women and girls and how to promote healthy choices and relationships among youth.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

  collaborator FED

• University of Pittsburgh

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Elizabeth Miller, MD, PhD · University of Pittsburgh

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

11 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-03-31

Primary Completion

2017-11-10

Completion

2018-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations