Adolescent Dating Violence Prevention Program for Early Adolescents: The Me & You Randomized Controlled Trial, 2014-2015.

Abstract

<i>Objectives.</i> To test the efficacy of Me & You, a multilevel technology-enhanced adolescent dating violence (DV) intervention, in reducing DV perpetration and victimization among ethnic-minority early adolescent youths. We assessed secondary impact for specific DV types and psychosocial outcomes.<i>Methods.</i> We conducted a group-randomized controlled trial of 10 middle schools from a large urban school district in Southeast Texas in 2014 to 2015. We used multilevel regression modeling; the final analytic sample comprised 709 sixth-grade students followed for 1 year.<i>Results.</i> Among the total sample, odds of DV perpetration were lower among intervention students than among control students (adjusted odds ratio = 0.46; 95% confidence interval = 0.28, 0.74). Odds of DV victimization were not significantly different. There were significant effects on some specific DV types.<i>Conclusions.</i> Me & You is effective in reducing DV perpetration and decreasing some forms of DV victimization in early middle-school ethnic-minority students.