School-based primary prevention interventions for adolescent relationship abuse: An umbrella review

Abstract

There is growing use of primary prevention interventions which aim to tackle adolescent relationship abuse (ARA) through raising awareness of the issue, changing attitudes that underpin abusive behaviors, increasing knowledge and skills to promote help-seeking, and to ultimately lower the incidence of ARA victimization and perpetration. To date, several reviews have explored the effectiveness of existing ARA prevention programs. However, the reviews often focus on a single type of intervention, setting, and/or condition, making identifying, summarizing, and appraising the available evidence challenging. Meaning it can be difficult to ascertain what works for whom and under what circumstances. Therefore, this umbrella review provides an up-to-date re-synthesis and re-analysis of reviews of the ARA prevention literature, culminating in a comprehensive summary of the efficacy of program content, design, delivery, and evaluation. A systematic search of seven cross-disciplinary databases yielded 21 reviews and meta-analyses reporting the effectiveness of school-based ARA prevention programs, published prior to June 2023. This review examined review objectives, program characteristics (e.g., sample size and features, implementer details), outcome measures and findings and reported 11 determinants associated with intervention success. The findings revealed critical gaps regarding ‘what works’ for school-based ARA primary prevention intervention, resulting in a set of recommendations for future program optimization.