A 10 year (2011-2021) systematic review of teen dating violence prevention programs

BACKGROUND: Teen dating violence (TDV) refers to the physical, sexual and/or psychological violence that takes place within a romantic relationship amongst teenagers. TDV has devastating consequenc-es for the victims, particularly for young women, who also experience increased risk of relation-ship violence in their adulthood. In view of this, the implementation of effective TDV prevention programs has the potential to tackle both TDV and contribute to eradicate gender-based violence. The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review examining the effectiveness of the TDV programs published during the last decade (2011-2021). METHODS: From the 1143 studies identified through the database searches, 28 met the inclusion criteria: 10-18 years old; experimental, or quasi-experimental with control group; examining knowledge, attitudes and/or TDV behavior indicators; 2011-2021. RESULTS: Although there were still many programs focused on changing knowledge and attitudes only, we found an increase in the number of studies examining TDV behavioral indicators. A modest im-provement in the quality of the programs in terms of their ability to modify the desired TDV behaviors was detected, yet resistance to change was still observed. CONCLUSIONS: Effective programs met many of the requirements specified by the gender transformative programme literature (time-intensive, multilevel, multicomponent skill development approaches). Nonetheless, we identified some brief, creative and effective interventions worth implementing given their cost-efficacy.