Fourth R Implementation

The primary aims of this CDC-funded implementation study are to:

• Assess initial feasibility, quality, acceptability, engagement, adaptation, and satisfaction with Fourth R,

• Examine school-, teacher-, and student-level barriers to high-fidelity implementation and correlates of low fidelity to the intervention protocol,

• Determine sustainability and impact of experience on implementation by assessing changes over the course of the study in fidelity, feasibility, acceptability, satisfaction, and engagement, and

• Evaluate effects of initial implementation fidelity and change over time on students' changes in attitudes, knowledge, skills, intentions, and behavior related to teen dating violence.

For more information on the Fourth R program, please visit 4R/Prevention.

Fourth R Evaluation

The NIH-funded school-based cluster randomized trial of the 7th-grade version of Fourth R includes 24 ethnically diverse middle schools (ie, clusters: 12 intervention schools, 12 control schools) in area schools to determine the impact of the program by comparing students in intervention schools with those in control schools.

The primary aim is to determine whether Fourth R reduces students’ teen dating violence.

The secondary aims are to determine whether Fourth R:

• Improves students’ relationship quality, emotional well-being, and increases their acquisition and use of healthy relationship skills;

• Ameliorates the modifiable cognitive and behavioral correlates associated with the perpetration and victimization of TDV;

• Improves school climate

For more information on the Fourth R program, please visit 4R/Prevention.

Dating it safe (longitudinal study)

The purpose of the NIH- and NIJ- funded Dating it Safe study is to examine the longitudinal risk and protective factors of dating violence (or adolescent relationship abuse). A sample of 1,042 high school students were recruited from seven public high schools and assessed as freshman/sophomore high school students in 2010 and have been assessed annually.

This study has already generated some of the first data demonstrating

• a temporal link between substance use and domestic violence; 

• the intergenerational link between witnessing mother-to-father violence and DV perpetration and victimization;

• the importance of considering sexual orientation in examining DV;

• the association between DV and borderline personality disorder;

• teen sexting and sexual behaviors, including a longitudinal association;

• the course and stability of DV over time;

• a longitudinal relationship between DV and risky sexual behavior among females;

• that sexual minority youth report higher levels of borderline features than heterosexual youth;

• a prospective relationship between between avoidance of internal states and borderline features in adolescents; and

• the role of parental closeness in mediating the relationship between problematic parental substance and adolescent substance use.

City of houston collaboration

The purpose of this CDC-funded project is to implement effective healthy relationship programs in Houston area high schools situated in high crime/violence areas. The evaluation component will focus on monitoring both the implementation (fidelity, adaptation) and outcomes of Fourth R and Healthy Relationships Plus Program (HRPP), and will utilize school-based youth risk assessments, observations, and student and teacher surveys.

Causeway galveston

Causeway Galveston (CG) emphasizes the critical link between healthy relationships, mental health and well-being, and academic success for all students.

CG is both an innovative partnership between Galveston ISD, Family Service Center (FSC), Teen Health Center, and UTMB’s Center for Violence Prevention. It is a model for how to promote community resilience in students for success in school and life.

Our whole school model focuses on trauma-informed care with a racial equity lens, including integrating Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and mental health supports.

For more information, visit Causeway Galveston.

Teen Pregnancy prevention

We will leverage 4 large data sets of ethnically diverse pre- and early- adolescent youth (n=6,305) drawn from randomized trials of sexual risk reduction and healthy relationship promotion interventions. This large sample will allow us to overcome the methodological limitations of prior efforts and determine which factors are most impactful in preventing adverse sexual health outcomes and reducing disparities in adverse sexual health outcomes. Specifically, we will innovatively harmonize data from 4 randomized evaluations to: 

• Identify the “core components” of these interventions most strongly associated with positive impacts on sexual health (i.e., delayed sexual debut; reduced SRB).  

• Identify the core components most strongly associated with reductions in sexual health disparities for racial and ethnic minority youth across harmonized data sets.

• Test effectiveness of these interventions among cross sections of high-risk subpopulations of youth (e.g., Hispanic males with early sexual debut vs. Hispanic males without early debut).  

• Test whether TD/SV mediates the impact of the interventions on sexual health. 

• Test whether TD/SV differentially mediates the impact of the interventions on disparities in sexual health.    

• Train the next generation of TPP and health disparity researchers to specialize in the 1) development and implementation of empirically supported core components of TPP programs, 2) intersection of TD/SV and adolescent sexual health, and 3) measurement and analysis of adolescent sexual health.