Abstract

The present study aims to develop a dating violence prevention program for college students and to test its effectiveness. Firstly, a group-based 8-session dating violence prevention program was developed with the aim of providing information about dating violence, supporting constructive conflict resolution skills, and providing guidance for safe and equal relationships. A pilot study was conducted with 2 groups to test whether the program worked well in terms of content and timing. After the necessary revisions, the program was finalized. A total of 90 students attending a university in Istanbul (Prevention = 41, Control = 49) participated in the main study. Responses to Dissatisfaction Scale, Ambivalent Sexism Scale and Attitudes towards Dating Violence Scales were used in the pretest and posttest assessments. A series of 2 (Time: pre-test, post-test) x 2 (Group: prevention, control) x 2 (Sex: women, men) mixed factorial analyses of variance showed that there was a statistically significant decrease in support for hostile sexism, accepting attitudes towards women’s use of physical violence and accepting attitudes towards men’s use of psychological violence after the program. No significant changes were observed in constructive conflict resolution skills and other attitude measures. The results indicated that dating violence prevention programs can be an effective tool to combat violence against women. The revisions needed in the program, the limitations of the present study and suggestions for future work are discussed.

Key words: dating violence prevention, college students, effectiveness research