Program for the Prevention of Violence among Teenage Couples in the School Setting

Domestic violence remains one of the major problems in the 21st century entailing severe costs and consequences for the victims. Despite the promulgated laws, this type of violence has increased among adolescents. Although several theories have been put forward to explain the causes of domestic violence, a psychobiological or social-educative explanation that proposes an agreed starting point for understanding and preventing this phenomenon is lacking. Experts in the field agree on the need for programs that focus on this relational problem; however, existing programs for adolescents have a broad spectrum where the prevention of domestic violence is just one more aspect of their objectives. For this reason, it is convenient to recommend a program of primary and secondary prevention aimed at students between 14-20 years of a age with a single objective: the prevention of domestic violence among adolescents. In this paper, we present the program methodology and evaluation results after its implementation in middle and high schools in the Canary Islands and Murcia. The results point to its effectiveness.