A Systematic Review of Interventions for Preventing Adolescent Intimate Partner Violence

The aim of this review was to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions to prevent primary or secondary perpetration and victimization of IPV among male and female adolescents. We reviewed randomized controlled trials of interventions to reduce physical, sexual, and psychological violence perpetration and victimization among adolescents. Our review suggests that comprehensive IPV prevention interventions based in both school and community are effective in preventing IPV perpetration and victimization among adolescents. Electronic databases were searched for peer-reviewed RCTs, published in the English language.

We included eight articles and one report, describing six trials in three countries. A meta-analysis was not performed because of variations in interventions and outcome measures among the six trials.Four interventions contained both school and community components. We found positive intervention effects on IPV perpetration (three studies) and IPV victimization (one study). Compared with the studies with no effects on IPV, the effective interventions were of longer duration, and were implemented in more than one setting. There were quality issues in all six trials.