Adolescent Family Violence (AFV) is a significant and pervasive issue within the community that effects 1 in 5 Australian families. AFV is associated with a range of negative outcomes, including a strained parent-child relationship (which is critical for healthy child social and emotional development), as well as parental shame and despair. Parents experiencing AFV consistently highlight the need for a specific service to respond to the issue which, given its complexity, is not adequately addressed by generalised programs. Despite significant demand, there are a lack of interventions available for AFV which have demonstrated efficacy.
This study aims to evaluate a promising intervention for AFV: The Step Up: Building Healthy Relationships program, as well as better understand the experience of AFV in a clinical sample. The program is an ecological, systems-based response to AFV delivered by Meli to young people (aged 10-18) and their caregivers in the Barwon region. We use a pre-post study design to evaluate changes in AFV frequency and function (i.e., motivation), as well as parent-adolescent communication, for families who complete the program. The study is also exploring differences in outcomes for families of young people who have witnessed family violence, and those where the young person has a neurodevelopmental diagnosis.
Alongside the evaluation component, we have used the Critical Incident Technique to document and analyse individual situations of AFV which are most commonly experienced by families in the Step Up program, to identify critical stages within situations of AFV. Analysis at this level can expose opportunities for rapid change and safety planning (e.g., through de-escalation) while longer-term mechanisms of change (e.g., attachment processes) have time to become impactful.