Author: Nan Stein
Year Published: 2010
The research team randomly assigned 30 New York City middle schools (two 6th and two 7th grade classrooms in each, with a final total of 117 participating classrooms) to one of four conditions: (1) a classroom‐based intervention, (2) a building intervention, (3) both classroom and building interventions, or (4) a no‐treatment control group. The classroom curriculum included six sessions emphasizing the consequences for perpetrators of dating violence/harassment (DV/H); state and federal laws for DV/H; the setting and communicating of boundaries in relationships; and the role of bystanders as interveners. The building intervention included the introduction of temporary school‐based stay‐away orders; assignment of faculty and school safety personnel to monitor unsafe areas identified through the use of student “hot spot mapping”; and the use of posters to increase awareness and reporting of DV/H to school personnel. We collected program evaluation data from about 2,700 students who completed surveys administered before the intervention, immediately afterwards, and about six months post‐intervention.