Program Profile: One Love Escalation Workshop for Dating Abuse Prevention in the Military

This program involves film and guided discussion to promote bystander behavior related to dating abuse. The program is rated No Effects. There were no statistically significant differences between the intervention and control groups on intervening when a peer was being harmed or physically hurt by an intimate partner, or when a peer was intoxicated or being bullied. The intervention group was statistically significantly more likely to intervene in peer self-harm, compared with the control group.

A No Effects rating implies that implementing the program is unlikely to result in the intended outcome(s) and may result in a negative outcome(s).

This program's rating is based on evidence that includes at least one high-quality randomized controlled trial.

Program Goals/Target Population

Intimate-partner violence (also called domestic violence and dating abuse) is a serious problem for civilians, enlisted military personnel, and veterans (Black and Merrick 2013; Gierisch et al. 2013). Intimate-partner violence among service members may be due to unique stressors associated with military life, such as deployment and reunification, multiple relocations, and posttraumatic stress disorder, among other factors (Gierisch et al. 2013; Jones 2012; Schmaling, Blume, and Russell 2011). Bystander intervention is the concept that persons who are not victims or individuals perpetrating violent crimes can play an important role in stopping or preventing the crime (Banyard and Moynihan 2011). The One Love Foundation offers an Escalation Workshop, a one-session workshop designed to educate participants (that is, individuals in the Navy) about dating abuse and to promote bystander intervention behaviors. The goal is to increase participants’ willingness to contemplate the health of relationships, readiness to talk about the health of relationships with peers, readiness to act as a bystander, and empathy for victims of dating abuse.

Program Components  

The One Love Foundation is a national nonprofit established to prevent dating abuse. The foundation offers an Escalation Workshop designed to influence participants to play a more active role in primary prevention as bystanders, to lower dating abuse–related risk, to increase protective factors in their “spheres of influence” (for example, social media posts on dating abuse or healthy relationships), and to start conversations about dating abuse with friends, family, and coworkers (Rothman et al. 2019).

The workshop consists of two components: 1) a 40-minute film that tells the story of two college students whose relationship ends in a homicide; and 2) a peer-facilitated, manual-based discussion (roughly 45 minutes long) about the film, dating abuse, and taking action as a bystander. The Escalation Workshop is designed such that the video can be shown to large audiences of several hundred people, and discussion then takes place in smaller breakout groups of approximately 20 participants. During the workshop, the trained facilitator leads participants through an analysis of the controlling behaviors exhibited by the individual perpetrating dating abuse in the film, ways that the victim minimized the abuse to friends and family, and opportunities that friends and family had to intervene. Workshop participants learn to identify warning signs of abusive behavior, what to say or do if someone they know is experiencing or perpetrating dating abuse, and where to find additional information and helping resources.

Key Personnel

The One Love Foundation offers Escalation Workshop training (One Love 2023). Trained facilitators are provided with a discussion guide that outlines 17 questions breaking down key scenes of the film, with key teaching points tied to each. Facilitators are trained on how to lead the conversation and guide participants to arrive at the key lessons. They also are advised to use flexibility to ensure the discussion flows naturally and follows participants’ interest, while still addressing a set of main points about dating violence and bystander behavior.

Study 1

Rothman and colleagues (2021) conducted a randomized controlled trial to examine the effectiveness of the One Love Escalation Workshop on bystander behaviors (participants intervening when a peer was being harmed or physically hurt by an intimate partner, or when a peer was intoxicated, being bullied, or at risk of self-harm) in a sample of Navy sailors 8 months after participation. Two Naval ships similar in size and staffed by a similar number of Navy personnel at similar ranks were selected for randomization. Using Excel, one ship was randomly assigned to be the intervention group (n = 149 sailors) that received the Escalation Workshop, and the other ship was randomly assigned to be the control group (n = 186 sailors) that was not offered the workshop. On the intervention ship, participants were invited to complete the baseline survey, and the One Love video was shown in a large group setting to about 60 sailors at a time, followed by postvideo small group discussions with about 20 sailors and three trained One Love staff facilitators. On the intervention ship, participation in the Escalation Workshop was mandatory, but participants could choose whether they wanted to participate in the research study and complete the baseline survey. Data were collected immediately before the intervention, 4 months after the intervention, and 8 months after the intervention. All data were self-reported and collected through paper-based surveys that took about 20 minutes to complete.

At baseline, participants in the intervention group were on average 27 years old and were mostly male (80.3 percent). The majority were Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (55.8 percent), Asian (16.3 percent), and Hispanic/Latino (10.2 percent). Approximately 35.4 percent of intervention group participants reported being aware of peer self-harm (when someone seemed like they might have been thinking of hurting themselves); 40.8 percent had witnessed peer bullying (were aware of opportunities to intervene to prevent peer bullying); 16.0 percent had an opportunity to start a conversation with friends, family, or other Navy personnel about intimate-partner violence; 41.8 percent had witnessed peer intoxication; 8.8 percent were aware of a peer making an excuse for being controlling or hurtful to an intimate partner; 8.2 percent were aware of a peer being harmed (physically or sexually hurt, or stalked or threatened, by an intimate partner); and 7.5 percent witnessed a peer being physically hurt by an intimate partner. Participants in the control group were on average 27 years old and were mostly male (86.5 percent). The majority were Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (53.5 percent), Asian (22.2 percent), and Hispanic/Latino (9.2 percent). Approximately 37.8 percent of control group participants reported being aware of peer self-harm at baseline (when someone seemed like they might have been thinking of hurting themselves); 57.0 percent had witnessed peer bullying (were aware of opportunities to intervene to prevent peer bullying); 20.7 percent had an opportunity to start a conversation with friends, family, or other Navy personnel about intimate partner violence; 62.7 percent had witnessed peer intoxication; 20.4 percent were aware of a peer making an excuse for being controlling or hurtful to an intimate partner; 14 percent were aware of a peer being harmed (physically or sexually hurt, or stalked or threatened, by an intimate partner); and 11.9 percent witnessed a peer being physically hurt by an intimate partner. There were statistically significant baseline differences in participants? being aware of opportunities to intervene to prevent peer bullying, peer intoxication, and dating abuse perpetration; these were controlled for in the analyses.

Four outcomes were assessed: 1) attitudes, 2) injunctive norms, 3) prevention-oriented behavior, and 4) bystander behaviors. The CrimeSolutions review of this study focused on the bystander behaviors outcomes: specifically, participants intervening in peer dating abuse (a peer being harmed, including physically or sexually hurt, or stalked or threatened by an intimate partner; and a peer being physically hurt by an intimate partner); and intervening in peer self-harm, peer bullying, and peer intoxication (intervening with peers who are intoxicated or may be contemplating self-harm is not directly addressed by the Escalation Workshop, but these themes come up during the Escalation video, are directly relevant to the story depicted, and are often discussed during the workshops when participants raise these issues organically). Respondents were first asked how many times in the preceding 3 months they had been aware of opportunities to act as a bystander, then they were asked how many times they intervened in that situation. A sample item: ?A friend told you he or she was being physically hurt by an intimate partner.? Participants were subsequently asked, ?How many times did you see or hear this or did it happen?? and ?How many times did you intervene and do something to help in this situation?? The response options were ?0 times,? ?1?3 times,? and ?4 + times.? A dummy variable representing ?took bystander action, given that they had the opportunity? was created.

Binary variables representing bystander behavior for each of the bystander behavior outcomes were created. An adjusted hierarchical linear model with multiple imputation to mitigate potential bias due to missing data was used to examine the effect of the workshop on bystander behaviors from baseline to the 8-month follow-up. Marital status and prior exposure to a dating violence prevention program were related to group assignment, so these were included as covariates in the analysis, as were the other variables that differed at baseline. The analysis was modeled at the level of the repeated measures within individual participants. No subgroup analysis was conducted.

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

These sources were used in the development of the program profile: