Citation

Langhinrichsen-Rohling J, Turner LA. Prev. Sci. 2012; 13(4): 384-394.

Affiliation

University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA, jlr@usouthal.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11121-011-0240-7

PMID

21842333

Abstract

This study examined the efficacy of a brief (four session) intimate partner violence (IPV) prevention program (Building a Lasting Love, Langhinrichsen-Rohling et al. 2005) that was designed to reduce the relationship violence of predominantly African American inner-city adolescent girls (n = 72) who were receiving teen pregnancy services. These high-risk girls were randomly assigned to the prevention program (n = 39) or waitlist control (n = 33) conditions. Implementation fidelity was documented. As predicted, girls who successfully completed the program (n = 24) reported significant reductions in their perpetration of psychological abuse toward their baby's father as compared to the control (n = 23) participants. They also reported experiencing significantly less severe IPV victimization over the course of the program. Preliminary analyses indicated that avoidant attachment to one's partner may be associated with less program-related change. These findings support the contention that brief IPV prevention programs can be targeted to selected groups of high-risk adolescents.

Language: en