Evaluating a sexual assault and dating violence prevention program for urban youths

A sexual assault and dating violence prevention program presented in an urban middle school was evaluated to assess its influence on the knowledge and attitudes of an intervention group of 46 and a comparison group of 20 African American seventh graders. A quasi-experimental pretest, posttest, followup group design was used to evaluate the program's effectiveness. At posttest the intervention group's mean knowledge and attitude scores were significantly higher than pretest mean scores. At follow-up the intervention group's knowledge and attitude scores improved significantly over pretest scores; the comparison group's scores did not improve. At pretest girls had more knowledge and attitudes that were less supportive of sexual assault and dating violence compared with the boys' knowledge and attitudes. At follow-up gender differences disappeared. Results support the need for early prevention programming among youths in inner-city schools.