Teacher Interview Guide

Attachment J – Interview Guide

Teacher Interview Guide

Form Approved

OMB No. 0920-XXXX

Exp. Date: 06/30/2011

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Teacher Interview Guide

Effectiveness and Implementation Trial of the Safe Dates Program

1. Introduction

a. Study Description and Background

Thank you for talking with us. My name is _________, and I will lead our discussion today; ___________ will take notes. We both work for RTI International, a non-profit research company that is conducting this study for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This interview is part of a study to learn more about the Safe Dates program to prevent dating violence. We particularly want to know what you think about the program. As part of this study, we will talk with students and teachers who taught Safe Dates to hear their opinions of teachers who delivered the program. The kinds of things we are interested in are:

• Opinions about the Safe Dates program from teachers living in cities such as [SCHOOL NAME CITY]

• Do teachers in cities believe the Safe Dates program is relevant to their community?

• Do they recommend changes for schools in cities?

[For teachers who received training from RTI]: As part of the main Safe Dates study, you may remember the trainers saying to deliver the Safe Dates program exactly as it is written and not make any changes. However, we realize this may not have been always possible and the purpose of this discussion is to elicit your honest opinions about whether the program should be changed in any way for future implementation in schools in cities.

b. Purpose of Interview

We will ask about what you liked best about Safe Dates, what you thought was most useful, what was hardest for students to learn in the Safe Dates program, and what you think should be changed in Safe Dates.

The information you give us, combined with information from others, will help the government improve prevention programs and find better ways to help students.

3. Consent and confidentiality

• Your participation in this interview is voluntary, and will have no effect on federal funding your school receives.

• If there are any questions you prefer not to answer, you do not have to speak on that topic. None of the things we’ll be discussing require you to talk about actual dating violence among individual students.

• If you tell us that someone’s life or health could be in danger, we are required to share this information with someone who can help.

• We would like to tape record this session as a backup to our written notes. Only the research team will use these tapes. If you prefer that we do not tape something you want to say, you may choose not to say those things or you may end the interview.

• We will use the information from this interview and other interviews to write a written report. We would like to identify quotations by name in this report. If you are sharing something and would prefer to not be identified by name, school, or district in any reports, just let me know, and I will make sure that we don’t attribute that to you, your school, or your district.

d. Logistics

In the discussion today, I will ask questions about your opinions. There are no right or wrong answers. We are interested in hearing about both what you think works well in the Safe Dates program and what you think should be done differently.

Are there any questions on anything I’ve told you so far?

Start Tape Recorder!

2. Teaching Experience

a. First, tell me your job title, what courses you teach, and how long you have been teaching.

b. When did you teach Safe Dates? (Probe for month and year of first time and last time they taught Safe Dates.)

c. In how many different class periods did you teach Safe Dates?

3. Relevance/Fit

1. Do you have your copy of the Safe Dates curriculum with you now for reference?

2. Overall, what was your impression of the Safe Dates program?

Probe: Did you like it/dislike it? What did you like/dislike about it? Why?

4. Specific Activities

Now, let’s talk about the specific activities in Session 2, Defining Dating Abuse. This session aims to help students clearly define dating abuse through the discussion of scenarios and the review of statistics. The scenario about Megan and Jason (p. 55) is used to illustrate physical and emotional dating abuse.

a. How well did this scenario resonate with your students? Why?

Probe: What do you think of the names that were used? What do you think about the way the teens were talking? What do you think about the things the teens were doing? What do you think about where the teens were hanging out?

b. Would you change the story in any way? Why/why not? How?

In Session 3, a series of scenarios are employed to teach why people abuse (to control the way someone acts, feels, and thinks).

c. Is there anything you would change about these scenarios to make them more relevant for your students? If yes, why? What would you change?

Probe: Would you change the language to reflect the way students talk to each other? What are some ways you might change the language?

Let’s talk about Session 4: How to Help Friends. Session 4 includes “Why Is It Hard to Get Help?” (p. 96). This section is designed to allow students to understand why a victim of abuse may be hesitant to reach out.

d. Do you think that your students face barriers to getting help that the program doesn’t address? If yes, what barriers? How would you change this session to help students identify these barriers?

Now look at the handout you filled out for students to learn resources who can help teens with abusive relationship situations.

e. Are there folks or services that you would consider not helpful?

Probe: What about health professionals (doctors, nurses, clinics)?

f. What can you tell me about mental health professionals’ or mental health counselors’ responses to dating violence, intimate partner violence, or domestic violence in [NAME CITY]? To your knowledge, do they screen for this type of violence, or are they sensitive to this topic? Are they helpful or not helpful? If problems noted, ask: Should the Safe Dates program do anything differently to address community resources in light of these problems?

Session 5, “Helping Friends,” is designed to develop students’ skills to recognize red flags that indicate their friend might be a perpetrator or a victim of dating abuse. This session contains a story about Greg and Michelle (pp. 115-117).

g. Overall, how well did the story fit the lives of your students? Why/why not?

Probe: Were there parts of the scenario that didn’t fit with your students? If so, what were they? What are your suggestions about how to make Greg and Michelle’s story more relevant to your students in your school?

Next, there is a role-play activity for students to practice helping people who are victims of abuse and confronting friends who are perpetrators of abuse. Handouts ( on pp. 119-125) are entitled, “Guidelines for Helping People who are Abusive” and “Guidelines for Helping People Who Are Being Abused.”

8. Were there parts of the activity that did not fit with your students? If so, what were they? What are your suggestions about how to make the role-play activity on how to help people who abuse/are abused more realistic and appropriate for your students?

Now let’s talk about specific activities in Session 6— “Overcoming Gender Stereotypes.” This session includes scenarios designed to help students see the ways gender stereotypes can affect dating relationships. The scenario on p. 133 is about Chris and Alex, and the one on p. 139 is about Jason and Nicole.

i. Overall, how well did these scenarios fit the lives of your students? Why?

Probe: What about the names that were used? What about the things the teens were doing? What about where the teens were hanging out?

j. Would you change the scenarios in any way? If so, why? How?

___________________________________________________________________________

Now I want to ask you questions about Session 7: “Equal Power through Communication.” The objective is for students to learn and practice skills for effective communication. The scenario about Marcus and LaToya is on p. 147.

11. Overall, how well did this scenario fit the lives of your students? Why?

Probe: What about the names that were used? What about the things the teens were doing? What about where the teens were hanging out?

l. Would you change the scenarios in any way? If so, why? How?

___________________________________________________________________________

Let’s move on to Session 9 on page 194 about preventing sexual assault.

m. What do you think about the way the session addressed alcohol and dating violence? [REMINDER: Remember that we don’t want you to talk about teens’ specific experiences with alcohol and dating violence, only about what you think about the way Safe Dates addressed alcohol and dating violence.]

Probe: Did you think this scenario was realistic for your students? If

so, why? If not, why not?

Probe: Would you change anything about how Safe Dates deals with alcohol and dating violence? If yes, why? What would you change? If not, why not?

Probe: Is there anything you would remove that doesn’t make sense for your students? If yes, why? What would you remove?

Probe: Is there anything that you feel is left out or could be added to the Safe Dates program about alcohol and dating violence? If yes, why? What would you add?

Probe: What about other drugs? Do you think that Safe Dates should address other drugs besides alcohol? If yes, why? How do you think it should address other drugs? If not, why not?

__________________________________________________________________________

The Safe Dates program also involves students putting on or reading aloud a play (the script begins on p. 223).

14. How well did this play fit with your students? [Prompt] Did the students relate to the story?

o. Would you suggest improvements to the play for your students? If so, how might you change this play for students in your schools?

6. Electronic Aggression

There have been recent reports about teens using electronic communication, like cell phones, text messaging, computers, the Internet, Facebook, or MySpace, to perpetrate psychological abuse against a dating partner, by harassing them, embarrassing them, insulting them, threatening them, or something else. Do you think the program as it is now is sufficient to address this? [REMINDER: Remember that we don’t want you to talk about teens’ specific experiences with electronic communication and psychological dating abuse, only about what you think about how well the Safe Dates program addresses this type of dating abuse.] Why/why not? [If do not think program addresses this well]: How do you think the Safe Dates curriculum could better address this issue?

7. Gangs

1. What role do gangs play in the lives of your students? As a reminder, we don’t want to hear about individuals, just about students in general.

2. Does the presence of gangs affect kids’ dating violence experiences? If so, how?

3. How sufficient is the program to address adolescent dating violence in the presence of gangs?

4. If not, how would you change about the program to better address adolescent dating violence and gangs?

8. Stranger Victimization

a. Some violence is caused by people you don’t know, not just dating partners. This could be when a person you don’t know, or a stranger, does something violent to someone else, like a robbery or mugging or some other type of violence. Do you think that having experienced violence by a stranger would make a difference in how teens feel about dating violence? [REMINDER: Remember that we don’t want you to talk about your personal experiences with violence by a stranger, only about what you think about whether this would make a difference in how teens feel about dating violence.] If yes, how would this make a difference?

2. Do you think the Safe Dates program should add anything to address having experienced violence by a stranger? If yes, what should the program add about violence by a stranger that would help teens avoid or reduce dating violence that would make sense for teens in [NAME CITY]? If no, why not?

9. General Questions

1. So, thinking about the program as a whole, would you say that Safe Dates was a good fit for your students? Why or why not?

2. What topics and activities worked best with your students?

3. What topics and activities didn’t work as well with your students? Why?

4. Do you think that the program addresses the kind of dating violence that your students experience? If no, why not? What kind of dating violence do you see that is not addressed by the program? A reminder that we don’t want you to talk about specific students or give names, just about dating violence you see among students in general that is not addressed by the program.

10. Adaptation

Is there anything that you would change about the program to make it more relevant to the students in your school? If so, what specifically would you change?

Probe: Topics, activities

__________________________________________________________________________

11. Closing

Do you have any additional closing comments or suggestions you’d like to make? (Ask notetaker whether they have any questions.)

Thank you. We sincerely appreciate your time and participation. We will mail you a gift card for participating in this interview. Where should we mail the gift card?

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