Peers are the preferred source of help for Brazilian adolescents who experience dating violence. However, they are not always the best informants for effective responses for dealing with situations of violence in romantic relationships among peers. This experimental study aimed to evaluate the short-term efficacy of three aspects of a peer- and bystander approach-based intervention: the intent to offer help, empathy, and bystander attitudes in response to dating violence in a Brazilian sample of adolescents. The study’s participants were 33 adolescents randomized in two groups: experimental group (EG, n = 14) and control group (CG, n = 19). The EG underwent three weekly intervention sessions of 90 min each on the healthy versus violent romantic relationships, the quality of friendship in the peer network, and the role of the bystander, while the CG received no intervention. Evaluations were performed 1 week before and two and half months after the intervention. Statistically significant differences between EG and CG at post-test were not found in intention to help, empathy, and bystander attitudes. Future studies should include evaluations of larger samples and mid- and long-term follow-ups to identify patterns of change over the long term as well as examine barriers to utilization of bystander behaviors by adolescents in Brazilian culture.

中文翻译：

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旁观者干预对预防巴西青少年约会暴力的功效：短期评估


对于遭受约会暴力的巴西青少年来说，同龄人是首选的帮助来源。然而，他们并不总是有效应对同龄人恋爱关系中的暴力情况的最佳信息提供者。这项实验研究旨在评估基于同伴和旁观者方法的干预措施三个方面的短期效果：针对巴西青少年样本中的约会暴力提供帮助的意图、同理心和旁观者的态度。该研究的参与者是 33 名青少年，他们被随机分为两组：实验组（EG，n = 14）和对照组（CG，n = 19）。 EG 每周进行三期干预，每次 90 分钟，内容涉及健康与暴力的浪漫关系、同伴网络中的友谊质量以及旁观者的角色，而 CG 没有接受任何干预。评估在干预前1周和干预后两个半月进行。测试后的 EG 和 CG 之间在帮助意图、同理心和旁观者态度方面没有发现显着的统计差异。未来的研究应包括对更大样本的评估和中长期跟踪，以确定长期变化模式，并研究巴西文化中青少年利用旁观者行为的障碍。