Apr 20th, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Title
Intimate Partner Violence Among Latino Pregnant Teens and their Partners: Testing a Prevention Program
Faculty Sponsor
Dr. Eric Landrum, Boise State University; and Dr. Paul Florsheim, University of Utah
Information
Throughout the literature, intimate partner violence (IPV) is defined as physical violence, threats of physical or sexual violence, psychological and emotional violence, and sexual violence; and in some cases stalking is included as part of the definition (Center for Disease Control, 2006). The purpose of the current study was to examine intimate partner violence among adolescent pregnant teens and their partners. Specifically, this study examined physical and non-physical violence, jealousy, and positive conflict resolution. The intention was to test a preventive intervention among adolescent relationships. We were interested in examining the intervention effect on the Latino adolescent couples. Forty-one Latino couples were recruited through public health clinics and high schools. Couples were randomly selected to intervention or control groups; twenty-four couples participated in the intervention and seventeen couples participated in the control. Female partners ranged in age from fourteen to eighteen. Male partners ranged in age from fourteen to twenty four. Participants took part in multiple interviews. Audio information was collected and used from the interviews. Couples were independently interviewed at Time 1 (pre-intervention, before the baby was born) and Time 2 (8-12 weeks post-birth). An original scoring template was created to measure Intimate Partner Violence within the relationship. We expected a decrease in violence over time, both physical and non-physical, among couples who participated in the intervention and couples who were not part of the intervention. Additionally, we expected that higher rates of jealousy at Time 1 would predict higher rates of IPV at Time 2. Results indicated that couples who participated in the intervention had significantly less IPV than couples who did not. Results also indicated that jealousy was significantly related to IPV; however, this outcome was not expected. This study shows that the preventive intervention being tested may have an effect on the participants who were involved.