Healthy relationships help prevent dating violence

Fostering healthy relationships lies at the heart of dating violence prevention, and approaching the problem within this context can open doors for effective youth interventions, according to the speakers at the 2024 Carla Diaz-Lewis Domestic Violence Lecture at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston. 

Two experts from the Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health shared the stage at the Oct. 21 event. Melissa Peskin, PhD, vice chair of the department, outlined the “Me and You: Building Healthy Relationships” intervention designed for middle school students. Belinda Hernandez, PhD, MPH, described the “Code of Respect” program piloted with the U.S. Air Force. Hernandez is an assistant professor at UTHealth School of Public Health in San Antonio. 

One in 12 high school students experience physical dating violence, and one in 10 experience sexual dating violence. Electronic dating violence, such as online stalking, is also common, Peskin said. Many studies suggest that females are more likely to perpetrate physical and emotional violence, while severe physical and sexual violence are more common with males. 

“Young people often need more knowledge and skills about healthy relationships,” Peskin said. “It’s also important for parents or other adults to talk with young people about healthy relationships.” 

The “Me and You” intervention was developed by School of Public Health researchers with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It includes interactive modules for students, parents, and school staff. The program addresses topics such as setting personal rules, protecting those rules, refusal skills, and connecting thoughts and emotions. The research team tested the program in a randomized controlled trial by offering it in five middle schools and comparing the results with five schools that delivered typical health education content. 

“Youth who received the intervention were less likely to perpetrate dating violence or  experience dating violence,” Peskin said. 

Hernandez was part of the “Me and You” team and used a similar approach in working with active-duty airmen ages 18-24 to develop the “Code of Respect” or “X Core” intervention. She has also researched dating violence and prevention among college students. In both groups, the perpetrator is most often a friend or acquaintance. 

Through her work with young airmen, she studied survivors’ likelihood to report sexual harassment or violence, noting that men often perceive such experiences instead as bullying or hazing. 

The airmen’s perception of a situation of uninvited touching, for example, depended on the perceived severity, frequency, relationship with the offender. They were more likely to report situations involving superior officers than airmen of lower rank, reasoning that high-ranking officers should know better. 

The “X-Core” intervention consists of 10 online modules optimized for smartphones that can each be completed in 10 minutes. Airmen who completed the modules showed improved knowledge of active consent, relationship self-efficacy, and bystander efficacy, Hernandez said. 

Focusing broadly on healthy relationships creates the potential for positive outcomes beyond prevention of dating violence. 

“We don’t talk about sexual assault until we are halfway through the program,” Hernandez said. The Air Force intervention also seeks to dispel stereotypes of male perpetrators and female victims, and the modules depict same sex couples as well as heterosexual partners. “We show both males and females as offenders and survivors.” 

The annual lecture series was established through a gift from Carla Diaz-Lewis and her husband, Kenneth Lewis. Its aim is to teach health care providers and community members how to identify and assist victims of domestic violence.