Dating violence (DV) physical, sexual, and psychological in adolescent relationships is prevalent in the United States: one in three young women has reported dating violence, yet few violence prevention programs for adolescents exist. Elizabeth Miller’s research, “Coaching Boys into Men,” a sexual violence prevention program developed to train coaches to communicate with young male athletes to reduce intimate partner violence. The intervention taught athletic coaches to recognize the early indicators of abusive behaviors, to model gender-equitable attitudes and behavior, and to encourage bystander behavior to intervene and stop abusive behavior when it is occurring.
A cluster-randomized controlled study of coaching boys into men found that intervention athletes' changed their intentions to intervene compared to the control subjects, with a moderate intervention effect. There were also changes in recognition of abusive behaviors and positive bystander intervention. This innovative intervention is a promising strategy to capitalize on athletics programming to reduce DV perpetration.
