The Dating Violence Prevention program is the only empirically validated psychoeducational curriculum to prevent dating violence among high school students. This program has been under development since 1989 and has been submitted to several tests of its scientific effectiveness. The purpose of this Phase I application is to transform the Dating Violence Prevention program from a five-session research protocol into a commercially viable curriculum package. Four tasks are associated with the development of this package: (1) adapt the research protocol into a curriculum package including teacher guide and student workbook (2) develop two different methods of training teachers: self-guided instruction manual and one-day workshop; (3) evaluate the relative efficacy of each training method; and (4) obtain teacher feedback regarding the utility of the curriculum package. Criteria for evaluation will be based on the educational literature on curriculum development. These modifications and their evaluation will facilitate widespread application and ultimate success of the curriculum package. The self-guided materials can stand alone, requiring little additional training and therefore expense, and teachers can accommodate the program to best suit their style and th needs of their students. For teachers who want a more intensive training experience, a workshop will be available. In Phase II, a multi-site field test of the entire curriculum package on high school students' knowledge, attitudes, and behavior as well as teacher effectiveness will be conducted.
Target markets include school administrators in charge of curriculum development, and health and physical education middle and high school teachers. As health is a mandated course for all students in most states, public schools in the US are the primary potential customer. In order to market effectively to high school and middle school teachers, continuing education credit will be offered.
