Program Goals
The Risk Detection/Executive Function (RD/EF) program set out to reduce sexual and physical re-victimization in girls who had previously been exposed to maltreatment. Research has found that youths with histories of re-victimization have impaired abilities to detect threats or risky situations in intimate relationships (an ability known as risk detection [RD]). Research has also shown an important link between youths who experience child abuse and deficits in executive function (EF). EF refers to those cognitive skills that allow an individual to respond to risks of danger in a relationship (DePrince et al. 2013). Based on this research, the RD/EF intervention not only focused on improving girls’ ability to perceive risky and dangerous situations, but also on improving their ability to respond to those situations.
Target Population/Eligibility
The RD/EF program focused on adolescent females between the ages of 12–19. The participants were referred to the program (by their caseworkers, service providers, or legal guardians) because they were currently or previously involved with the child welfare system and had a history of maltreatment exposure. They were also eligible for the study if they 1) did not report current suicidal ideation; 2) were receiving current treatment services for reported suicide attempts or psychiatric hospitalizations within the last 3 to 6 months; and 3) were receiving current treatment services for reported self-harm behavior or psychosis (DePrince et al. 2013).
Program Theory
Risk detection (RD) requires that an individual notice and respond to danger cues (both external, such as a dating partner’s threatening behaviors, and internal, such as one’s own feelings of fear or discomfort) in intimate relationships (DePrince 2006). A range of cognitive skills, called executive functions (EFs), are required for one to notice and respond to danger cues. These skills include the ability to shift, inhibit, and focus attention; maintain focus in the face of distracting information; update new information to the working memory system; think flexibly about potential solutions; and plan and initiate actions (DePrince et al. 2013, p. 14). In potentially dangerous situations, teens with compromised EF, due to previous victimization, may have trouble noticing potential danger cues and may not be able to figure out how to respond to threats. The authors theorized that teaching teens the EF skills needed to notice and respond to danger cues would result in decreased re-victimization.
Program Activities
To create the Risk Detection/Executive Function intervention, DePrince and colleagues (2013) modified a risk detection program, which had been developed by Marx and colleagues (2001) for college students. Additionally, they adapted a mindfulness-based intervention, originally developed by DePrince and Shirk (2013), to target alterations in executive functioning. They integrated the mindfulness-based program with Marx’s risk detection curriculum and made it age-appropriate and engaging.
The program was implemented outside of school, in a community-based location, and included 12 sessions, each with a detailed session theme. The sessions each lasted 1.5 hours and were provided weekly. Using mindfulness-based, cognitive interventions, the program helped adolescents become more aware of both internal (e.g., feelings of shame, fear) and external (e.g., a partner’s threatening behaviors or the presence of nearby danger) cues for risky situations and ways to respond to risks. Sessions included the following:
- Introduction to the group (meeting other members, establishing rules)
- Consequences of violence/abuse: Going on auto-pilot
- What is violence and aggression?
- Getting on active pilot: Noticing the world around us
- Getting on active pilot: Noticing our bodies and physical sensations as guides
- Getting on active pilot: Noticing our thoughts as guides
- Getting on active pilot: Noticing our reactions as guides
- Active pilot in dating situations: What is risky?
- Responding to risk: Figuring out what to do
- Responding to risk: Knowing what to do and asserting what I want
- Responding to risk: Knowing where to get help
- End of group celebration
Key Personnel
Two co-facilitators covered the content of the program, using the program manuals. The co-facilitators were graduate-level trainees and received weekly supervision from the program developer. The program developer also served as a co-facilitator.
