Amplifying Latino College Students’ Voices By Culturally Adapting a Theater-Based IPV Intervention

Background and Purpose: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a critical public health issue in the United States, with particularly high prevalence rates among young adults aged 18 to 24. Addressing IPV among college students is essential, yet most interventions focus on the general student population and often lack culturally sensitive elements that meet the diverse needs of students. Theater-based interventions use performance as a platform to provide education and raise awareness. Research supports the effectiveness of this approach in increasing knowledge and shaping attitudes with regard to IPV. However, there remains a gap in IPV interventions tailored specifically for Latino populations. This study responded to this gap by exploring Latino college students’ perspectives on how an existing theater-based IPV intervention may be adapted for cultural relevance.

Methods: A 20-minute play on dating violence was presented to 58 Latinx college students (n=50 females) aged 18 to 27 (M_age= 20, SD=1.72) during four workshops in an urban area of a Midwest state. Self-identifying Latino/a/x students were recruited through posted and emailed flyers (in Spanish and English) at four universities (i.e., 2 private, 1 public, and 1 community college). Guided by relational cultural theory, the project framed violence as a community issue and highlighted youth empowerment through connection with family, peers, and community resources. After viewing the play, students in focus groups (4-5 students each) were asked questions about dating as a Latino young adult, and how we might integrate the values and experiences of Latino college students into the play’s script to make it more culturally relevant. We used inductive thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006) to raise dialogue to themes; qualitative rigor was enhanced by keeping an audit trail and via researcher triangulation.

Results: The play’s themes pertaining to controlling behavior and jealousy were viewed as common although students described specific ways that this can occur (e.g., “lovebombing”: intense attention and pressure to commit quickly to a relationship). They also recommended changing the play to reflect the types of violence most common to college-aged adults (i.e., emotional, and bidirectional rather than one-sided). Students’ suggestions for improving cultural relevancy included gender-related expectations, religious, and family values. Finally, students felt that many students would turn to family or a friend rather than a university counselor.

Conclusions and Implications: This project highlights the importance of research-practice collaboration and amplifying the voices of marginalized populations in the development of IPV interventions. Rich discussions on the play’s key themes generated recommendations to enhance the play for Latino collegiate audiences, as well as for culturally inclusive IPV interventions more broadly. Findings from this study have direct relevancy to the SSWR 2026 theme by aligning social work science with practice in that findings will be utilized by the partnering theatre agency to develop and evaluate a culturally adapted dating violence play. We will also discuss important directions for future research.