Concerned friends of intimate partner violence survivors: results from the myPlan randomized controlled trial on college campuses
Abstract
Background Nearly half of intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors experience their first abusive relationship at college age (18–24 years). Most often they disclose the violence to friends. Existing college campus “bystander” interventions training peers to safely intervene have been effective in sexual assault prevention; similar interventions have rarely been tested for IPV. Therefore, we evaluated the effectiveness of an interactive, personalized safety decision and planning tool, myPlan app, on decisional conflict, decisional preparedness, confidence in intervening, supportive safety behaviors, and IPV attitudes with concerned friends of abused college women. Methods We recruited college students (age 18–24, N = 293) of any gender who had a female-identified friend who had recently experienced IPV (“concerned friends”) from 41 Oregon and Maryland colleges/universities. Participants were randomized to myPlan ( n = 147) or control (usual web-based resources; n = 146). Outcomes included decisional conflict, decisional preparedness, confidence to intervene, safety/support behaviors, and IPV attitudes. Results At baseline, concerned friends described the abused person as a close/best friend (79.1%); 93.7% had tried at least one strategy to help. Most (89.2%) reported concerns their friend would be seriously hurt by the abuser; 22.7% reported extreme concern. Intervention participants had greater improvements in decisional conflict (specifically, understanding of their own…
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design. Reported size: 293 participants or records.
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