Psychologists who treat people who are violent toward their partners often hear a common refrain: “I wish I had learned this in school.”
Increasingly, schools are tackling relationship violence, and there are several well-established evidence-based programs that work, including the Fourth R and Safe Dates (Wolfe, D. A., et al., JAMA Pediatrics, Vol. 163, No. 8, 2009opens in new window; Foshee, V. A., et al., Prevention Science, Vol. 15, 2014opens in new window). Christopher Murphy, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, is collecting data on a seminar-based program for first-year college students that combines prevention of sexual violence and relationship violence. Emerging adults face new issues in relationships compared with middle and high schoolers who might receive school-based prevention programs, Murphy said. “Young people need more opportunity to explore their own personal values and the kinds of relationships they want to have, and then be encouraged to develop the skills they need,” he said.
There are culturally specific community organizations doing this work, such as Men Stopping Violence, an Atlanta, Georgia, nonprofit founded in 1981 that offers “umoja,” or “unity,” hours for young men to focus on mental wellness, and the National Compadres Network, which roots its efforts in the indigenous practices of Chicano, Latino, Native, Raza, and other communities of color.
[Related: Preventing intimate partner violence by focusing on abusers]
Some psychologists are also making broadly targeted community prevention programs more relevant and inclusive. At Western University in Ontario, clinical psychologist Claire Crooks, PhD, is working to adapt the Healthy Relationships Plus Program, an offshoot of the Fourth R, for indigenous, immigrant, and LGBTQ+ communities. This involves working closely with community members to figure out the best types of support for their needs. For example, Crooks said, all collaborations with First Nations people are set against a larger backdrop of history and reconciliation.
“They’re looking for programs that help build more resilient, connected youth who make better choices,” Crooks said. “There’s often a focus on helping connect youth to their culture and increasingly helping youth understand some of the history of colonization.”
The rise of youth identifying as sexual or romantic gender minorities also means a move away from old male-female models of relationships and violence. It is important not to ignore or deny the gendered component to intimate partner violence, Crooks said, but the framework needs updating. “What we recognize is that toxic masculinity is not just about male-to-female violence, and toxic masculinity is harmful to girls and women and those who don’t identity in a binary way,” she said. “We really listen to youth and stakeholders to cocreate a program that fits what they’re telling us they need.”
