Exploring gender differences in dating violence/harassment prevention programming in middle schools

Utilizing a baseline survey as well as two follow-up surveys, this study examines 123 sixth and seventh grade classrooms from seven middle schools in the greater Cleveland that undergo five educational sessions that address gender violence and sexual harassment. This study questions the effectiveness of the program among boys and girls and asks whether or not girls experience higher levels of gender violence and sexual harassment than boys; while not statistically different, the researchers found that interventions greatly reduced sexual violence victimization and peer perpetration. While there were no statistically significant differences for the treatment multiplied by gender interaction terms for any of the perpetration or victimization outcome models, they found that boys are more involved in violence than girls: both as victims and perpetrators. The boys experienced significantly more of three types of victimization from peers and dating partners compared to what girls experienced at the hands of their peers and dating partners. As perpetrators, boys committed more sexual victimization against peers (immediately post-intervention only) and more sexual victimization against dating partners than girls.