Engaging Together for Healthy Relationships
University of Pittsburgh researchers are developing an interactive education tool designed to prevent adolescent relationship abuse (ARA) and delivered in primary care settings. Unlike many ARA interventions, this novel tool, Engaging Together for Health Relationships (ETHR), is developed with parents and adolescents in mind. The tool has the potential to increase awareness of ARA and provide young people with the skills to recognize ARA, seek help, and prevent ARA.
Description
ARA, also known as teen dating violence, covers physical, sexual, and emotional abuse harassment or stalking of a young person in the context of a romantic ,or current or previous consensual relationship. It can impact as many as one third of adolescents. The abuse is associated with a host of negative health outcomes. Pediatric primary healthcare settings are promising environments to discuss ARA and implement ARA-prevention strategies. ETHR will be designed with the end user in mind, focusing on the needs of adolescents and parents or caregivers. The tool is designed to be delivered in an interactive manner and include resources and exercises for learning. This intervention has the potential to raise awareness of ARA and prevent occurrence, improving the long-term health and wellbeing of millions of young people.Applications
• Adolescent relationship abuse• Healthcare provider education
• Family education
Advantages
Parents, caregivers, and healthcare professionals all have a vital role to play in ARA prevention. Pediatric primary care is an ideal environment for this tool due to well established and trusting relationships that already exist with the adolescent and their family. However, no intervention has been developed for specific delivery by primary care clinicians and very few interventions involve parents as well as adolescents.ETHR is the first healthcare-based ARA prevention intervention designed to be delivered within primary care settings where parents and adolescents are together. This novel approach will include provider training and an intervention bundle containing online, interactive case-based training with scripts for conversations with families. Designed to be an online resource, this tool will be accessible to families and providers.
Invention Readiness
Interviews with healthcare providers (HCPs), parents and adolescents have highlighted key needs of any effective ARA prevention intervention. Working with service users, ETHR will be developed to include age-appropriate resources and training for HCPs. Key areas will focus on engaging both adolescents during confidential time with HCPs and parents in the waiting room. Any tools should be inclusive aimed at all genders and sexual orientations and in multiple languages.IP Status
CopyrightRelated Publications
Tiffany-Appleton, S., Mickievicz, E., Ortiz, Y., Migliori, O., Randell, K. A., Rothman, E. F., Chaves-Gnecco, D., Rosen, D., Miller, E., & Ragavan, M. I. (2023). 199. Adolescent Relationship Abuse Education and Prevention in Pediatric Primary Care: Provider, Adolescent, and Parent Perspectives. Journal of Adolescent Health, 72(3), S110–S111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2022.11.221
Tiffany-Appleton, S., Mickievicz, E., Ortiz, Y., Migliori, O., Randell, K. A., Rothman, E. F., Chaves-Gnecco, D., Rosen, D., Miller, E., & Ragavan, M. I. (2023). Adolescent Relationship Abuse Prevention in Pediatric Primary Care: Provider, Adolescent, and Parent Perspectives. Academic Pediatrics, 23(6), 1151–1158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2022.12.005