The Impact of Adolescent Dating Violence Training for Primary Care Providers

Objective: This study presents results from an educational training to increase adolescent dating violence (ADV) screening among primary care clinicians and provides adolescents’ perceptions regarding discussing ADV with their clinicians. Methods: A national dating violence advocacy group provided a training in ADV to 16 clinicians serving an urban health clinic. Knowledge, self-efficacy, and expectations were examined before training, after training, and at a 6-month follow-up. Forty-five adolescent patients of the clinicians were also surveyed. Results: Analysis shows significant increases in clinician knowledge, self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, and outcome expectations after training and at the 6-month follow-up. About half of adolescents reported that they would disclose if they were in an abusive relationship and believed that their providers could help them. Discussion: This training successfully improved clinician self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, knowledge, and behavioral capability regarding ADV. Additional research is needed to determine whether the training leads to improved ADV screening and intervention.