School of Nursing, Notre Dame of Maryland University, Baltimore, Maryland, US.
School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, US.
BMC Public Health. 2023 May 31;23(1):1033. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-15918-y.
Nearly half of intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors experience their first abusive relationship at college age (18-24 years). Most often they disclose the violence to friends. Existing college campus "bystander" interventions training peers to safely intervene have been effective in sexual assault prevention; similar interventions have rarely been tested for IPV. Therefore, we evaluated the effectiveness of an interactive, personalized safety decision and planning tool, myPlan app, on decisional conflict, decisional preparedness, confidence in intervening, supportive safety behaviors, and IPV attitudes with concerned friends of abused college women.
We recruited college students (age 18-24, N = 293) of any gender who had a female-identified friend who had recently experienced IPV ("concerned friends") from 41 Oregon and Maryland colleges/universities. Participants were randomized to myPlan (n = 147) or control (usual web-based resources; n = 146). Outcomes included decisional conflict, decisional preparedness, confidence to intervene, safety/support behaviors, and IPV attitudes.
At baseline, concerned friends described the abused person as a close/best friend (79.1%); 93.7% had tried at least one strategy to help. Most (89.2%) reported concerns their friend would be seriously hurt by the abuser; 22.7% reported extreme concern. Intervention participants had greater improvements in decisional conflict (specifically, understanding of their own values around the decision to intervene and help a friend) and decisional preparedness immediately after their first use of myPlan, and a significantly greater increase in confidence to talk with someone about their own relationship concerns at 12 months. At 12-month follow-up, both intervention and control groups reported increased confidence to intervene, and did not differ significantly in terms of percentage of safety/support strategies used, whether strategies were helpful, or IPV attitudes.
A technology-based intervention, myPlan, was effective in reducing one aspect of decisional conflict (improving clarity of values to intervene) and increasing decisional preparedness to support a friend in an unsafe relationship. Information on IPV and related safety strategies delivered through the myPlan app or usual web-based resources both increased confidence to intervene with a friend. College students in the myPlan group were more likely to talk with someone about concerns about their own relationship, demonstrating potential for IPV prevention or early intervention.
Clinicaltrials.gov ID: NCT02236663, registration date 10/09/2014.
近一半的亲密伴侣暴力（IPV）幸存者在大学年龄（18-24 岁）首次经历虐待关系。他们大多数会向朋友透露暴力行为。现有的大学校园“旁观者”干预措施培训同龄人安全干预已被证明在预防性侵犯方面有效；类似的干预措施很少针对 IPV 进行测试。因此，我们评估了交互式、个性化的安全决策和规划工具 myPlan 应用程序对受虐待女大学生的关心朋友的决策冲突、决策准备、干预信心、支持性安全行为和 IPV 态度的影响。
我们从俄勒冈州和马里兰州的 41 所学院和大学招募了年龄在 18-24 岁之间的任何性别的大学生（n=293），他们有一名最近经历过 IPV 的女性朋友（“关心的朋友”）。参与者被随机分配到 myPlan（n=147）或对照组（常规基于网络的资源；n=146）。结果包括决策冲突、决策准备、干预信心、安全/支持行为和 IPV 态度。
在基线时，关心的朋友将被虐待者描述为亲密/最好的朋友（79.1%）；93.7%的人至少尝试过一种帮助的策略。大多数人（89.2%）表示担心他们的朋友会被施虐者严重伤害；22.7%的人表示极度担心。干预组在第一次使用 myPlan 后，在决策冲突（特别是理解自己在干预和帮助朋友方面的价值观）和决策准备方面有了更大的改善，并且在 12 个月时与某人谈论自己的关系问题的信心显著增加。在 12 个月的随访中，干预组和对照组都报告说干预信心增加，并且在使用安全/支持策略的百分比、策略是否有帮助以及 IPV 态度方面没有显著差异。
基于技术的干预措施 myPlan 有效减少了决策冲突的一个方面（提高了干预的价值观清晰度），并增强了支持处于不安全关系中的朋友的决策准备。通过 myPlan 应用程序或常规基于网络的资源提供的关于 IPV 和相关安全策略的信息都增加了与朋友干预的信心。myPlan 组的大学生更有可能与某人谈论他们自己的关系问题，这表明有预防或早期干预 IPV 的潜力。
Clinicaltrials.gov ID：NCT02236663，注册日期 2014 年 10 月 9 日。
