Numerous studies have indicated the detrimental effects of domestic violence exposure on children and adolescents. Evidence has shown that adolescent exposed to domestic violence present with poor psychosocial outcomes and negative gender attitudes which increase their propensity for becoming victims or perpetrators of domestic violence. These risk factors render them a vulnerable and an at-risk population. Effective interventions to address these risks that adolescents exposed to domestic violence present with are essential in the long-term fight against domestic violence. Despite the calls for effective interventions, there are very few programmes dealing specifically with these issues in depth and even less are evaluated for their effectiveness in the South African context suggesting that this area is under-researched. The aim of this study is to evaluate a school-based intervention for adolescents exposed to domestic violence with the primary aim of improving their psychosocial outcomes and gender attitudes.
A mixed methods approach is utilised for this study and includes both a quasi-experimental design and qualitative research methods. A pre-test (baseline survey) was conducted with 848 grade 8 learners across 4 schools. The survey results were then used to purposively select 40 participants on the basis of their high scores on psychosocial functioning and gender attitudes for experimental and control group assignment. The experimental group received an 8-week long school-based intervention whilst an observation structured technique was used to collect qualitative data in that time frame. Upon programme completion, post-tests were administered to both control and experimental groups and again during a 3 month follow up to measure outcomes on psychosocial functioning and gender attitudes. Using a non- parametric test, scores of the pre- test, post-test and 3-month follow up were compared to assess the efficacy of the intervention in improving psychosocial functioning and gender attitudes of the adolescents exposed to domestic violence within the various time frames. The control group received the intervention once data collection was completed as a standard ethical procedure.
Qualitative results in conjunction with quasi experiment findings showed that the experimental group performed slightly better in some measurement outcomes such as attitudes towards domestic violence in comparison to the control group in the post-test despite baseline measures being similar. There was also evidence that the changes from the experimental group were sustained in the 3 month follow up whilst the control group had no significant changes in scores. These findings suggest that the school-based intervention had some benefits for the participants, withstanding the lack of significant changes on some outcomes such as anxiety and conduct problems. Given the mixed results, further studies are recommended to assess the sustainability of programme outcomes on the adolescents, whilst modifications to the intervention are suggested to improve intervention efficiency.
Key words: School intervention, adolescents, domestic violence exposure, gender attitudes, programme evaluation