265: Through their eyes: Prevention educators' perceptions of Teen Dating Violence Prevention Program Impact

Teen dating violence is a widespread issue, and three-quarters of sexual assault and domestic violence (SA/DV) agencies provide school-based prevention programming to combat its occurrence. While some prevention educators use evidence-based programs that have been formally evaluated, roughly 85% substantially modify evidence-based curriculums or develop original programs. No previous research, to our knowledge, had sought to understand how prevention educators evaluate the effectiveness of these programs. Therefore, we interviewed 20 SA/DV prevention educators from the midwestern United States to answer the research question: How do prevention educators perceive the impact of their SA/DV prevention programming? We identified three themes through reflexive thematic analysis: (1) stakeholder feedback, (2) building relationships, and (3) recognizing student engagement and growth. This research adopts a shared leadership approach, where local innovations and practitioner experiences are valued as important sources of knowledge that can inform future SA/DV initiatives and the evaluations conducted to understand their impact.

Kathryn Fishwick, MA; Rachael Goodman-Williams, P.h.D