Results of Dating Violence Prevention Education for Japanese High School Boys

We conducted a class on domestic violence (DV) prevention for 234 high school boys (intervention group: 154 boys, non-intervention group: 80 boys) and verified its effect on the boys. The program dealt with respect, relationships and types of violence. The factor analysis of a questionnaire survey conducted before the class on DV prevention revealed that the high school boys’ understanding of “a relationship” and “a coercive behavior” was weak. Therefore, after conducting the class on DV prevention, we tested whether there was an improvement in their understanding of the terms “relationship” and “coercive behavior”. To understand whether boys’ understanding of “relationships” showed any change after the class, a comparison of the intervention and the non-intervention groups was carried out at four different time points—before the class on DV prevention, after the class, after a month, and after six months. A 2-factorial analysis of variance (repeated measures) was conducted. The results revealed that no mutual points of interaction were seen with the different measurement times based on the presence or absence of intervention (F (3,696) = 0.995, n.s.). To understand whether the term “coercive behaviors” changed boys’ understanding of the term after the class, the comparison from the results before the class till six months later showed significant mutual interactions with the measurement times based on the presence or absence of intervention (F (3,696) = 4.48, p < 0.01). From this study, it is clear that interventions such as a single class on DV prevention can help boys understand the term “coercive acts” and have an impact on their minds for a long time. However, the same may not be true in their understanding of “relationships”.