“Stepping Up”: A Decade of Relationship Violence Prevention

Abstract

Students in postsecondary education are at high risk for experiencing relationship violence, including dating, domestic, and sexual violence. This can result in significant mental and physical health consequences. A relationship violence prevention program has been offered and evaluated for over 10 years at a Canadian university. It is based on a social–ecological model of violence prevention and best practices. Students who completed both pre- and post-program evaluations were used as their own controls to evaluate the effects of the program. Significant changes were noted for most aspects of the program in knowledge, attitudes, and behavioural intents each year, and these changes persisted for up to six months on most measures. The sample sizes were small and potentially overestimated the effect of the program if results were reported individually. Meta-analysis was used to pool the data and examine the effects of the program across the decade. The results indicated that the program was effective in changing knowledge, attitudes, and behavioural intents immediately following the program, but there were insufficient paired data to conduct six-month meta-analyses. Suggestions are made for future programs and further research.