Preventing Relationship Abuse with the Health Belief Model

The purpose of the present study is to examine the Health Belief Model (HBM) as a framework for adolescent relationship abuse prevention-focused interventions. As part of a secondary school girls’ physical education course, participants (from grades nine to 12) will complete a HBM questionnaire, and a questionnaire assessing their past relationship behaviour. The participants will then be introduced to an intervention that teaches various assertive and protective reactions to problematic behaviour based on the components of the HBM. After the intervention, the girls will complete the HBM questionnaire a second time. Also, two months following the intervention, participants will be asked to complete the Past Behaviour questionnaire for a second time. It is predicted that health belief change will be positively correlated with relationship protective behavior change. Furthermore, it is expected that of the HBM factors, perceived benefits will be the strongest predictor of behavioural change, followed by perceived barriers, self-efficacy, perceived susceptibility, and perceived seriousness