Effectiveness of an Educational Program Directing toward the Domestic Violence among Secondary School Students

Domestic violence is now considered as a global health issue ⁽¹⁾. It is defined as a threat or physical, psychological and/or emotionally violent act; that is, any kind of violence against others with the intention of injuring or demonstrating power and exercising control over them ⁽²⁾.

According to the WHO ⁽³⁾, domestic violence against female is violence; behavior, within an intimate relationship that causes of physical, sexual or psychological harm, including acts of physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse and controlling behaviors.

Jewkes ⁽⁴⁾ substantiates that domestic violence is the inflicting of physical injury, sexual, psychological or economic violence by a family member or intimate partner, irrespective of whether they lived together or not. To Okolo ⁽⁵⁾, violence could be everywhere in the world today and violence against female is different from context, even though there has been great change overtime. In Iraq, at secondary school female students experience a moderate level of abusive behaviors ⁽⁶⁾. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of an educational program in changing high school female students’ attitudes toward domestic violence.

Materials and Methods:

An experimental design was used to guide this study. The study was conducted at three secondary schools for girls from Al-Mahmudiya district. The study included a probability “stratified” sample of 200) secondary school student girls who were randomly selected.

A (200) high schools for girls. Fourth and fifth-graders students were recruited to participate in this study. Based on an effect size of 0.25, an alpha error probability of 0.05, a power of 0.85, and two groups, the minimum required sample size would be 73 for each group. By considering an attrition rate of 20%, an additional 15 participants would be added to each group. Thus, the final required sample size would be 88 in each group. The final sample size is 100 in each group. The first group is called study group, which is exposed to the education program. the second group has not exposed to the education program, called control group.

The inclusion criteria involved high school female students who both experienced and do not experienced domestic violence, those who do not experience psychiatric illness(es), those of scientific and art tracks, and those who are enrolled in secondary schools within the geographical boundaries of al-Mahmudiyah district.

The exclusion criteria addressed students who experience psychiatric illness(es) and those who are enrolled in secondary schools outside the geographical boundaries of al-Mahmudiyah district.

The education program that is oriented on female students’ perception and attitudes toward domestic violence is implemented through three sessions. Each session is scheduled for 45-minutes.

Study instrument

A questionnaire was adopted from Elabani (2015). A questionnaire was adopted from Elabani (2015). The questionnaire consisted of sociodemographic data sheet which includes demographic characteristics of secondary school students such as age, family type, number of family members, and student’s birth order. The general information includes the residence area, house ownership, the number of rooms in the house, the parents’ living arrangements, the parents’ educational qualification, and the parents’ occupation.

The Definition of domestic violence against women scale was used to measure the students’ attitudes toward the concept of domestic violence.  This scale is a 5-point Likert type scale that is composed of five items. Responses on this scale ranged from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree). Total scores range from 5 to 25, with a higher score indicating negative attitudes toward the definition of the concept of domestic violence (Elabani, 2015). The Definition of domestic violence against women scale showed good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.772) and both content and face validity (Elabani, 2015).

Data were collected by the investigator through the use of a questionnaire and the application of the program with the secondary schools for girls during school visits, the data collection was initiated from February 20^th to April 28^th, 2019.

The study questionnaire was given to participants to complete (self-reporting).

The estimated time range for each participant to complete the study questionnaire is approximately 15-minutes that is affirmed by the pilot study.

Data Analyses/Statistics

Data were analyzed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 26 for Windows©.  Descriptive statistical measures of frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation were used to demonstrate the participants’ sociodemographic characteristics.  Inferential statistical measures of repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA), and bivariate Pearson correlation.

Results and Discussion:

Table 1. Participants’ Sociodemographic Characteristics

The age mean for participants in the study group is 16.56 ± 1.02; two-fifth age 16-years (n = 40; 40.0%), followed by those who age 17-years (n = 34; 34.0%), those who age 15-years (n = 12; 12.0%), those who age 18-years (n = 10; 10.0%), and those who age each of 19-years and 20-years (n = 2; 2.0%) for each of them. 

For the control group, the age mean is 16.29 ± 0.83; a half age 16-years (n = 50; 50.0%), followed by those who age 17-years (n = 26; 26.0%), those who age 15-years (n = 15; 15.0%), and those who age 18-years (n = 9; 9.0%).

Concerning the family type, the majority both in the study and control reported that they have been living in nuclear families (n = 85; 85% vs n = 87; 87.0%) respectively, compared to those who reported that they have been living in extended families (n = 15; 15.0% vs n = 13; 13.0%) respectively.

Regarding the number of family members, a quarter reported that such a number is six (n = 25; 25.0%), followed by each of seven, eight, and nine (n = 19; 19.0%), each of four, five, and 10 (n = 5; 5.0%) for each of them, and each of three, 14, and 15 (n = 1; 1.0%) for each of them.

For the control group, the mean is 6.91 ± 2.22; the mean for participants in the study group is 7.33 ± 1.87; less than a quarter reported that such a number is six (n = 24; 24.0%), followed by seven (n = 22; 22.0%), five (n = 17; 17.0%), eight (n = 14; 14.0%),four and 11 or more (n = 7; 7.0%) for each of them, nine (n = 5; 5.0%).

Table 2. Multivariate Tests of the Within-subjects for the domestic violence concept

DVC = Domestic violence concept

a. Design: Intercept Within Subjects Design: domestic violence concept

b. Exact statistic

There are significant differences in the values of the domestic violence concept over time for participants both in the study and control groups (F = 107.405, df = 2, p < .01 vs. F = 1.204, df = 2, p > .05). 

Table 3. Tests of Within-Subjects Effects for the domestic violence concept

There was a (a priori p = 0.01) significant difference (F (1.177, 116.554) = 190.523, p = 0.01) in the domestic violence concept over time for participants in the study group.  The omnibus effect (measure of association) for this analysis is .658, which indicates that approximately 65% of the total variance in the domestic violence concept values is accounted for by the variance in the administered intervention.

For the control group, there was no (a priori p = 0.01) significant difference (F (103.387, 6243.280) = 1.639, p = 0.01) in the domestic violence concept over time.  The omnibus effect (measure of association) for this analysis is .016, which indicates that approximately 16% of the total variance in the domestic violence concept values is accounted for by the chance.

Discussion

Regarding students’ attitudes toward the domestic violence as a behavior, there was a statistically significant difference in the domestic violence as a behavior over time for participants in the study group.  The omnibus effect (measure of association) for this analysis is .883, which indicates that approximately 88% of the total variance in the domestic violence as a behavior values is accounted for by the variance in the administered intervention. Furthermore, there were consistent increase in the values of the domestic violence as a behavior over time. The researcher accounts for this finding as that the administered intervention consistently influenced students’ attitudes toward the domestic violence as a behavior over time.

The study findings almost go in line with that obtained by Yilmaz ⁽⁷⁾ who concluded that the mean Attitudes Towards Domestic Violence (ATDV) total score has increased from 55.23 ± 5.84 in the pretest to 57.71 ± 5.07 in the posttest.

Crockett, Keneski, Yeager, and Loving ⁽⁸⁾ conducted an experimental study to study who concluded that revealed that there was a significant increase in taking accountability for violent behaviors from over time.

Conclusion and Acknowledgement

The implemented program positively and constantly affected the values of the domestic violence concept, the domestic violence as a behavior, the economic factors contributing to domestic violence, the social factors contributing to domestic violence, the rationalization of domestic violence for the study group by time compared to the control group.

Conflict of interest:  The researchers confirm that there is no any conflict of interest.

Source of Funding: This study is self-funded.

Ethical Clearance: The researchers obtained the ethical approval from the University of Baghdad, College of Nursing

References

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Ali RM, Naji AB, & Jasim AR. Assessment of abusive behaviors among females at secondary schools in Baghdad City: Retrospective study. IOSR Journal of Nursing and Health Science [Internet].2015 [cited 2021 Jan 8]; 4(4):40-47.

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Crockett E, Keneski E, Yeager K, Loving T. Breaking the mold: Evaluating a non-punitive domestic violence intervention program. Journal of Family Violence [Internet]. 2015 May [cited 2021 Jan 8];30(4):489–99. Available from:

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Jewkes R. Intimate partner violence: Causes and prevention. Lancet [Internet]. 2002 Apr 20 [cited 2021 Jan 8];359(9315):1423. Available from:

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Okolo GU. Violence against women. 2004, Baye Communications.

World Health Organization [WHO] Violence against women. 2013. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/violence/en/ .

Yilmaz EB. The Effectiveness of a Gender Equality Course in Changing Undergraduate Midwifery Students’ Attitudes Towards Domestic Violence and Gender Roles. Central European Journal of Nursing & Midwifery [Internet]. 2018 Apr [cited 2021 Jan 8];9(2):840 .