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Little research explores social work students’ knowledge of teen dating violence (TDV). The research that does exist pertains to adult domestic violence, which has markedly different characteristics. Studies find that over half of all teens experience some form of dating violence and that the consequences include poor performance in school, decreased sense of self-worth, and higher rates of depression. We know very little about what graduate students are learning about TDV during their MSW programs, and the extent to which they are prepared to work with teens experiencing TDV upon graduation. This study examined graduating MSW students’ proposed interventions in response to two scenarios of TDV.
Methods
During 2013-2014, 131 MSW students from two Southwestern universities completed an online survey about TDV. Fifty students (91% female) answered open-ended questions pertaining to two vignettes. The first vignette pertained to a same-sex, female, high school couple. One of the partners became possessive and controlling and began to demand increasing amounts of her partner’s time and insisted on being together at the expense of her partner’s extra-curricular activities. The second vignette pertained to a heterosexual high school couple. A girlfriend became very jealous and violent in the relationship. After a heated argument in which she embarrassed her boyfriend in public and slapped his arm, the boyfriend pressured her to have unwanted sex with him. Both vignettes were thoroughly explained and included background information that contextualized multiple ecological domains relevant to situational violence. Each vignette was followed by the following open-ended question: “How would you respond to this situation? Please be specific in describing the intervention(s) or series of interventions you feel would be most helpful.” We conducted an inductive content analysis utilizing Nvivo software to delineate themes within participants’ written responses.
Results
Responses were categorized by two primary themes, assessment procedures and proposed interventions. Responses such as “assess her feelings” or “conduct a risk assessment” were categorized as assessment. Interventions included a number of actions the social worker would take beyond assessment, which were further categorized by several subthemes. For example, providing some form TDV education (36.5%), which included information specific to what constitutes a healthy relationship (20%) was the most common educational intervention proposed by students. Individual counseling was the next most frequently proposed intervention (34%). Finally, 20% of the comments from respondents focused on the need for safety planning.
Conclusions and Implications
Findings from the study suggest that students are aware of the need to educate adolescents about TDV. This suggests that MSW students are cognizant of its complexities and implications. However, their recommendations for counseling over safety planning or other specific TDV interventions indicates that social work programs need to provide more content specific to TDV evidence-based interventions, particularly to those interested in serving youth. Additionally, more content and research on specific interventions appropriate for heterosexual and same-sex TDV relationships is needed.