Empowerment Self-Defense Training for the Prevention of Victimization of Transgender Women

Summary

The proposed project aims to develop and refine a tailored Empowerment Self Defense (ESD) violence prevention training for diverse TW through a series of sequential Aims: a) develop an initial draft of an ESD violence prevention curriculum tailored to TW (Aim 1); b) evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of recruitment, assessment procedures, retention and follow-up procedures, and implementation of the new intervention (Aim 2); and c) assess the preliminary efficacy of the tailored intervention program to increase use of self-protective resistance strategies, mitigate minority stressors and attitudinal barriers to self-defense, and reduce rates of exposure to violence (Exploratory Aim).

The investigators will accomplish these aims using a two-phase research design that begins with formative qualitative work engaging research partners on a community board and a small sample of research participants. Information for Phase 1 can be located in Protocol number 2020-0017. Further refinement and assessment of the feasibility and acceptability of the curriculum using Phase 1 findings will occur in Phase 2 through the delivery of the tailored ESD curriculum to 3 groups of 16 TW. To assess the preliminary efficacy of the tailored intervention, program participants will complete a battery of validated questionnaires assessing use of resistance strategies, gender-minority and general psychological factors hypothesized to mediate the behavioral effects of the intervention, and exposure to victimization experiences prior to, immediately following, and 6 months post-completion of the training. Together, the proposed research will lay the foundation for a large-scale randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the tailored ESD violence prevention curriculum.

Conditions

• Violence, Sexual

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Empowerment Self Defense Training

We have contracted with Prepare, Inc., the New York City chapter of IMPACT International to deliver the tailored ESD violence prevention intervention. IMPACT is an international ESD violence prevention organization with chapters across the United States. Prepare, Inc. will provide facilitators who have completed IMPACT's nationally standardized ESD violence prevention program requirements that include receipt of over 100 hours of training. IMPACT training is open to trans and cisgender women. The extensive training of IMPACT facilitators promotes intervention efficacy, while the risk of potential bias conferred by their experience with a pre-existing curriculum is mitigated by our community-engaged approach (i.e.,TW community members, service providers, and scientists \[PI and Co-I\] collectively shape the content of the final tailored ESD intervention, and TW co-facilitators will be present in every training session).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institutes of Health (NIH)

  collaborator NIH

• National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)

  collaborator NIH

• Hunter College of City University of New York

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Danielle S Berke · Hunter College of The City University of New York

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

SEQUENTIAL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-07-11

Primary Completion

2022-06-25

Completion

2024-02-26

Countries

• United States

Study Locations