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High school coach-taught program helped reduce teen dating violence

Besides teaching valuable strategies for use on courts and playing fields, coaches have the capacity as role models to instill effective lessons for high school male athletes to combat and reduce dating violence, according to a study.

The research, conducted by Elizabeth Miller, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, examined a national prevention program administered by high school coaches called “Coaching Boys into Men” (CBIM), in a trial in Sacramento, Calif. Researchers found the program taught high school male athletes how to better recognize and intervene to stop dating violence (DV), and the results showed increases in bystander intervention behaviors. The research is published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

“This … trial found that a brief athletic coach-led DV prevention program for high school-aged male athletes is associated with small-to-moderate increases in youth intentions to intervene in peer abuse perpetration, positive bystander behaviors and recognition of abusive behaviors,” Miller, now associate professor of pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote.

DV, according to the researchers, includes physical, sexual and psychological aggression in adolescent romantic relationships. Miller reported one in three girls in the United States experiences physical, emotional or verbal abuse from a dating partner.

CBIM, conducted during three sports seasons in 2009 and 2010, included 2,006 students in 16 high schools. Coaches, who received 1-hour training and voluntarily presented CBIM, used training-card strategies to discuss dating violence and appropriate attitudes toward women. They led 10- to 15-minute weekly discussions throughout the seasons with athletes in the intervention group. The control group included athletes who received regular coaching, but not CBIM guidance.

After CBIM, athletes said they were more likely to intervene when witnessing abusive behavior toward a peer, compared with the control group.

“Training coaches to teach adolescent males to prevent DV may be a promising strategy to increase knowledge, attitudes and behaviors that reduce DV perpetration,” they wrote.

Disclosure: Drs. Miller and Tancredi report receiving funding from the CDC.