📄 social_science

Advocating for my Relationships: Youths’ Understanding of Healthy Dating Balance, Staying Safe, and Bystander Behaviors

This study evaluates the "Advocating for My Relationships" (ADMYRE) school-based program, finding that while students initially demonstrated high identification of teen dating violence but lower understanding of relationship balance and bystander strategies, participation significantly increased knowledge across all areas, with baseline differences linked to school-level socioeconomic and academic factors.

Original authors: Mikaela Scozzafava, Bethany McCurdy, Kate Goudy, Rhonda Evans, Janet Melby, Daeyong Lee, Carl Weems

Published 2026-07-15

📖 6 min read🧠 Deep dive

CC BY 4.0

Original authors: Mikaela Scozzafava, Bethany McCurdy, Kate Goudy, Rhonda Evans, Janet Melby, Daeyong Lee, Carl Weems

Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). ✨ This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer

Imagine the social world of high school as a massive, bustling video game. In this game, players navigate complex levels of friendship, family, and eventually, romance. Sometimes, the game glitches. Players might encounter "glitchy" characters who try to control the screen, hide the map, or make the game feel unsafe. In the real world, we call this dating violence. It's not just about big, obvious crashes like hitting or screaming; it's also about the subtle bugs, like a partner who demands your password, tells you who you can't talk to, or gives you the "silent treatment" when they are mad.

Scientists who study these games are trying to figure out two things: First, do the players even know they are playing a glitchy game? Can they spot the difference between a healthy "co-op" mode and a toxic one? Second, if we give them a "cheat sheet" or a training level, can they learn to spot the bugs and help their friends do the same? This is the corner of science this paper explores: teen dating violence prevention. It looks at how well teenagers understand the rules of healthy relationships, how they handle safety, and whether they know how to step in when they see a friend in trouble. It matters because if players don't know the rules, they might keep playing a broken game, thinking it's normal, which can hurt their development and safety in the long run.

The Game and the Cheat Sheet

This study took a look at a specific training program called "Advocating for My Relationships" (or ADMYRE for short). Think of ADMYRE as a special, interactive training level in that high school video game. Instead of just reading a boring manual, students in eight Iowa schools jumped into a simulation. They were assigned a character and had to make choices in different relationship scenarios—some healthy, some not. After making their choices, they had a big group discussion to unpack what happened, acting like a "debrief" session where players analyze their gameplay to learn from their mistakes.

The researchers wanted to see if this training level actually helped the players upgrade their skills. They tested 338 students (mostly 9th graders) before they played the training level and right after they finished. The test wasn't about memorizing facts; it was about spotting the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationship moves.

What the Players Knew Before the Training

Before the training, the students were pretty good at spotting the "glitchy" stuff that was loud and obvious. If a scenario involved a partner sharing a naked photo or hitting someone, almost everyone knew that was wrong. It was like spotting a giant red "STOP" sign in the game.

However, when the game got more subtle, the players struggled a bit. They had a harder time identifying the "quiet bugs." For example, they weren't always sure if it was healthy for a partner to control who you hang out with, or if it was okay for a partner to demand your social media password. They also weren't as clear on how to stay safe or what to do if a friend told them their partner was being violent. It's like knowing you shouldn't walk off a cliff, but not knowing exactly how to navigate a foggy path where the ground might be slippery.

The Results: Leveling Up

After the students went through the ADMYRE training simulation, the results were promising. The "cheat sheet" seemed to work.

Overall Knowledge: The average score for knowing what dating violence is went up significantly.
Specific Skills:
- Healthy Balance: The number of students who correctly identified that spending time with friends (and not just your partner) is healthy jumped from 65.5% to 76.5%.
- Staying Safe: Knowing that you should have people you can talk to about your relationship went from 74.6% to 85.0%.
- Bystander Behavior: Knowing that you should tell a trusted adult if a friend is being hurt went from 76.0% to 84.3%.

The study suggests that this kind of interactive, scenario-based training helps students fill in the gaps in their knowledge. It turns the "foggy path" into something clearer.

Who Played Best?

The researchers also looked at who was already good at the game before the training started.

Gender: Female students generally had a higher score than male students across the board. They were better at spotting the subtle signs of trouble and knew more about how to stay safe or help a friend.
School Environment: The study found that the "school climate" mattered. Students in schools with higher academic scores and lower rates of poverty (fewer students needing free or reduced-price lunch) tended to have a bit more knowledge to start with. It's like playing on a server with better equipment; the environment seemed to help some players start with a slight advantage.

The Catch and the Future

The authors are careful to say that while the students learned more, this doesn't automatically mean they will act differently in real life. Knowing the rules of the game doesn't always mean you'll play by them when you're in the heat of the moment. Also, because this study didn't have a control group (a group of students who didn't get the training to compare against), they can't say with 100% certainty that the training was the only reason the scores went up, though the timing strongly suggests it.

The study also noted that the questions used in the test were a bit too easy for some parts (like the "naked photo" question), which made it hard to see small improvements in those specific areas. It's like trying to measure how much faster a runner got when the starting line was already at the finish line for some of them.

The Bottom Line

In short, the paper suggests that interactive, story-based training like ADMYRE is a useful tool for helping teenagers understand the complex, sometimes invisible rules of healthy relationships. It helps them move from just spotting the big, obvious dangers to understanding the subtle, everyday behaviors that make a relationship healthy or toxic. While it's not a magic wand that solves everything, it appears to be a solid step in the right direction for teaching young people how to navigate the tricky levels of dating.

Technical Summary: Advocating for My Relationships (ADMYRE) Program Evaluation

Problem Statement
Teen dating violence (TDV) is a significant public health concern with lasting developmental consequences, including cycles of violence, re-victimization, and mental health risks. While existing literature confirms that adolescents can identify overt, extreme forms of TDV (e.g., physical aggression, sexual coercion), there is a gap in understanding their grasp of more nuanced relational concepts. Specifically, knowledge regarding healthy relationship balance, personal safety strategies, and effective bystander interventions remains less documented. Furthermore, it is unclear how school-level characteristics—such as socioeconomic status (SES), academic performance, and school climate—interact with individual demographics to influence TDV knowledge. This study addresses the need for baseline data on these nuanced constructs to inform the targeting and content of school-based prevention programs.

Methodology

Design: A pre-post program evaluation of the "Advocating for My Relationships" (ADMYRE) intervention, a school-based TDV prevention program implemented through a university-state-school partnership in Iowa.
Participants: The study included 338 students (Grades 7–12; 50% female; 83.7% White; 64.8% in 9th grade) from eight Iowa schools who participated in the program between February 2022 and June 2023.
Intervention: ADMYRE utilizes scenario-based simulations where students assume roles of characters in romantic relationships, make decisions, and engage in debriefing sessions to discuss healthy vs. unhealthy dynamics. The program is grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior.
Measures:
- TDV Knowledge: A nine-item scenario-based assessment. Three items targeted specific constructs: Healthy Balance (e.g., identifying isolation vs. maintaining friendships), Staying Safe (e.g., identifying the importance of external support systems), and Bystander Behavior (e.g., responding to a friend in an abusive relationship). Six additional items assessed recognition of specific abusive behaviors (e.g., sharing location, self-harm threats, sharing intimate photos). Responses were coded as correct (1) or incorrect (0).
- School Characteristics: Data were aggregated from the Iowa Department of Education's School Performance Profiles (SPPs), including Free/Reduced-Price Lunch (FRPL) rates, academic achievement (ELA/Math), attendance, chronic absenteeism, and school climate indicators (e.g., adult-student relationships, emotional safety).
- Acceptability: Three Likert-scale items measured perceived usefulness and desire for future participation.
Analysis: Analyses were conducted using JASP and SPSS ( $\alpha = .05$ ). Paired samples t-tests assessed pre-post changes in overall knowledge. Non-parametric tests (Chi-square, Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney U) were used for item-level changes and group comparisons due to the dichotomous nature of specific items. Kendall's tau-b correlations examined associations with school-level variables. Sensitivity analyses confirmed the study had 80% power to detect small effects ( $d \approx 0.16$ ).

Key Results

Baseline Knowledge: Participants demonstrated high accuracy in identifying extreme forms of violence (e.g., 99.1% correctly identified sharing intimate photos as dangerous). However, understanding of nuanced constructs was lower: 65.5% correctly identified healthy balance, 74.6% identified staying safe strategies, and 76.0% identified appropriate bystander responses.
Demographic Differences:
- Gender: Female participants demonstrated significantly higher overall TDV knowledge ( $M=.80$ ) compared to males ( $M=.64$ ). This female advantage persisted across specific domains of "Staying Safe" and "Bystander Behavior," though differences in "Balance" knowledge were smaller but still statistically significant.
- Grade/Race: No significant differences were found in overall knowledge by grade level or race/ethnicity.
School Characteristics: Overall TDV knowledge was positively associated with English Language Arts (ELA) achievement and negatively associated with the percentage of students eligible for Free/Reduced-Price Lunch (FRPL) and school "expectations and boundaries." Balance knowledge specifically correlated negatively with FRPL status and student-student relationship scores.
Program Impact: Participation in ADMYRE resulted in statistically significant increases in knowledge across all domains:
- Overall TDV knowledge increased from $M=.72$ to $M=.82$ ( $d=.38$ ).
- Balance knowledge rose from 65.5% to 76.5%.
- Staying safe knowledge rose from 74.6% to 85.0%.
- Bystander behavior knowledge rose from 76.0% to 84.3%.
Acceptability: Among the subset of respondents ( $n=165$ ) who completed acceptability measures, over 96% agreed the program and discussions were useful, and 81.4% expressed interest in similar future programming.

Significance and Claims
The authors claim that this study provides initial, evaluation-oriented evidence regarding the utility of the ADMYRE program in increasing youth understanding of key relational skills targeted by contemporary TDV prevention theory. The findings suggest that while adolescents generally recognize overt violence, there is a distinct educational need regarding the nuances of relationship balance, safety planning, and bystander intervention.

The paper highlights the importance of contextual factors, noting that school-level indicators (SES, academic performance, climate) are associated with baseline knowledge levels, suggesting that prevention planning must consider the specific ecological environment of the school. The authors modestly conclude that while the program shows promise in enhancing knowledge and is well-received by participants, knowledge gains do not automatically equate to behavioral change. They emphasize the need for continued investment in school-based programming but call for more rigorous, longitudinal research (e.g., randomized controlled trials with delayed follow-ups) to establish long-term efficacy and behavioral outcomes. The study does not claim to have proven causality due to the lack of a control group but positions the results as a necessary step in refining measurement tools and curriculum for nuanced TDV prevention.

Technical Summary: Advocating for My Relationships (ADMYRE) Program Evaluation

More like this