SECOND EDITION

Scope and
SCOPE ANDSequence
SEQUENCE

Scope and Sequence

For more information or to order,
visit hazelden.org/bookstore or call 800-328-9000
November 2015
 Introduction to Safe Dates

What Is Safe Dates?

The Safe Dates program is a dating abuse prevention program consisting of five components:
• a ten-session dating abuse curriculum
• a play about dating abuse
• a poster contest
• parent materials, including a letter, newsletter, and the Families for Safe Dates program
• an evaluation questionnaire

All the materials needed to implement the program are included in the Safe Dates manual
and CD-ROM.

What Are the Goals of Safe Dates?

The goals of this program are to

• raise students’ awareness of what constitutes healthy and abusive dating relationships
• raise students’ awareness of dating abuse and its causes and consequences
• equip students with the skills and resources to help themselves or friends in abusive
dating relationships
• equip students with the skills to develop healthy dating relationships, including posi-
tive communication, anger management, and conflict resolution

Who Is the Intended Audience?

Safe Dates can be used as a dating abuse prevention tool for both male and female middle and
high school students. Safe Dates would fit well within a health education, family life skills,
or general life skills curriculum.
Because dating abuse is often tied to the abuse of alcohol and other drugs, you may want
to consider using Safe Dates in conjunction with drug and alcohol prevention programs, as
well as any other general violence prevention programs.

©For
2010 more information
by Hazelden orrights
Foundation. All to order,
reserved. visit hazelden.org/bookstore or call 800-328-9000.
Duplicating this page for personal or group use is permissible. 1
© Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. All rights reserved. 2 of 11
 A school counselor could offer Safe Dates as part of a support group or counseling/education
program, or it could be used in afterschool, community youth enrichment (such as YMCA or
Girl Scouts), and faith-based youth programs.
Safe Dates could also be used as an intervention tool at domestic abuse or crisis centers, in
juvenile diversion programs, and with victim support groups.

Is Safe Dates a Research-based Program?

Safe Dates is a research-based program with strong, long-term outcomes. It has been identified
as a model program in the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices
(NREPP) as well as many other federal- and foundation-funded publications.
Safe Dates was the subject of substantial formative research in fourteen public schools in
North Carolina using a rigorous experimental design. The program was found to be effective
in preventing dating abuse perpetration and victimization among teens already involved in
dating abuse. Adolescents participating in the program, as compared with those who did not,
also reported less acceptance of dating abuse, less of a tendency to gender stereotype, and a
greater awareness of community services for dating abuse.
Researchers studied the same group of students four years after implementation and
found that students who participated in the Safe Dates program reported 56 percent to 92
percent less physical, serious physical, and sexual dating violence victimization and perpe-
tration than teens who did not participate in Safe Dates. The program has been found to be
equally effective for males and females and for minority and non-minority adolescents.

Safe Dates Main Components

The following is a brief description of each component of the Safe Dates program.

Ten-Session Curriculum
The Safe Dates curriculum is a ten-session program that deals with attitudes and behaviors
associated with dating abuse and violence. Each session is approximately fifty minutes in
length. Safe Dates is designed to fit various schedule formats (e.g., daily or weekly programs).
Reproducible student handouts are included on a CD-ROM for easy reproduction.
If you do not have time to complete all ten sessions, the curriculum also has suggestions
for a six-session or four-session program. It is important to realize, however, that the fidelity of
the product and accompanying outcomes are best maintained by completing all ten sessions.

© 2010 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.

For more
Duplicating information
this page orgroup
for personal or to order, visit hazelden.org/bookstore
use is permissible. or call 800-328-9000. 2
© Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. All rights reserved. 3 of 11
Session 1: Defining Caring Relationships. Through a bingo game and class discussions,
students are introduced to the Safe Dates program and they consider how they would like to
be treated in dating relationships.

Session 2: Defining Dating Abuse. Through the discussion of scenarios and the review of
statistics, students clearly define what dating abuse is.

Session 3: Why Do People Abuse? Through large- and small-group discussions and the
review of scenarios, students identify the causes and consequences of dating abuse.

Session 4: How to Help Friends. Through a decision-making exercise, a dramatic reading,

and the introduction of the “Friend’s Wheel,” students learn why it is difficult to leave abusive
relationships and how to help a friend in an abusive relationship.

Session 5: Helping Friends. Through stories and role-playing, students practice skills for
helping friends who are victims of abuse or confronting friends who are abusive partners.

Session 6: Overcoming Gender Stereotypes. Through a writing exercise, small-group dis-

cussions, and scenarios, students learn about gender stereotypes and how these stereotypes
can affect dating relationships.

Session 7: How We Feel, How We Deal. Through the use of a feelings diary and a discussion
of “hot buttons,” students learn how to recognize and effectively handle their anger, so it doesn’t
lead to abusive behavior.

Session 8: Equal Power through Communication. Students learn the four SAFE skills
for effective communication and practice these skills in a variety of role-plays.

Session 9: Preventing Dating Sexual Abuse. Through taking a quiz, analysis of scenarios,
and a discussion with peers, students learn about the issue of dating sexual abuse and how to
prevent it from happening.

Session 10: Reviewing the Safe Dates Program. Through discussion, evaluation, and a
poster contest, students will review the Safe Dates program.

Dating Abuse Play

As part of your Safe Dates program, you may want to present this forty-five-minute play
about dating abuse and violence, which was written by high school drama students. Before
presenting the play, consider sharing local statistics on the prevalence of teen dating abuse.

© 2010 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.

For more
Duplicating information
this page orgroup
for personal or to order, visit hazelden.org/bookstore
use is permissible. or call 800-328-9000. 3
© Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. All rights reserved. 4 of 11
Following the performance, have the actors lead discussions, preferably in small groups, with
the audience about the issues presented in the play.
Consider presenting this play as a schoolwide assembly, as part of your school’s drama
program, or at other school or community events. You do not need professional actors. Enlist
the help of your school’s drama department or put on the play with your own students.

Poster Contest
Hosting a poster contest is a great way to reinforce the concepts learned in the curriculum.
Instructions for the poster contest are included with the session 10 outline in the manual.
Posters about dating abuse prevention can be displayed in school hallways or other community
buildings such as libraries, city hall, and shopping malls. Students could also use their posters
when giving presentations to various school or community groups.

Parent Materials
As in every strong prevention effort, it is important to get your students’ parents or guardians
involved in your Safe Dates program. A letter informing caregivers of the Safe Dates program
is located on the CD-ROM, as is a two-page education newsletter that you can send to parents
and guardians or keep on hand, in case you need to talk to a caregiver about this issue.
Consider mailing the letter and newsletter together.
For those teachers and families who choose to dig deeper into the issue of adolescent
dating abuse, Families for Safe Dates is a comprehensive, research-based program included
on the CD-ROM. Families for Safe Dates includes six booklets that contain background
information and activities for caregivers and teens to do together as they learn about different
topics regarding adolescent dating abuse.

Why Is It Important to Teach about Dating Abuse?

Anyone can be a victim of abuse in dating relationships: girls and boys; whites, African
Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asians; students born in rich neighborhoods
and students born in poor neighborhoods; people that come from abusive homes and people
who do not; people who have dated a lot and people who have just begun dating. Children as
young as twelve years old can become involved in abusive dating relationships.
Dating abuse is a very real issue for many students:
• In the United States, approximately 12 percent of heterosexual high school boys and
girls report having been physically victimized by a dating partner in the previous year.
This percentage is as high is 40 percent in some areas of the country.1
• Approximately 13 percent of gay adolescent girls and 9 percent of gay adolescent boys
report having been physically victimized by a dating partner in the previous year.2

© 2010 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.

For more information or to order, visit hazelden.org/bookstore
Duplicating this page for personal or group use is permissible.
or call 800-328-9000. 4
© Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. All rights reserved. 5 of 11
 • Victimization from psychological dating abuse is even higher, with approximately 29
percent of heterosexual high school students and 20 percent of gay high school students
reporting having been psychologically abused by a date in the previous year.3
• Dating abuse is beginning as early as the sixth grade.4
• Adults who use violence with their dating partners often begin doing so during
adolescence, with the first episode typically occurring by age fifteen.5
• Young women between the ages of fourteen and seventeen represent 38 percent of those
victimized by date rape.6
• Rapes by acquaintances account for 60 percent of all rapes reported to rape crisis
centers.7
• Both girls and boys are victims of dating abuse, though girls receive more severe
injuries from dating abuse than boys.8
• Both girls and boys are perpetrators of dating abuse, though girls tend to use less
severe forms of dating abuse than boys.9
• Abuse almost always recurs in a relationship. It doesn’t just go away.
• Most abuse gets more severe over time.
• The consequences of being a victim of dating abuse for both boys and girls include
depression, cigarette smoking, and suicide attempts. Additional consequences for
girls are marijuana use, illicit substance use, and antisocial behavior; an additional
consequence for boys is suicide ideation.10

Notes

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance—
United States, 2007,” Surveillance Summaries, MMWR 2008; 57 (No. SS-4). V. A. Foshee and
R. Matthew, “Adolescent Dating Abuse Perpetration: A Review of Findings, Methodological
Limitations, and Suggestions for Future Research,” in The Cambridge Handbook of Violent
Behavior and Aggression, ed. Daniel Flannery, Alexander Vazsonyi, and I. Waldman (New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
2. C. T. Halpern, M. L. Young, M. W. Waller, S. L. Martin, and L. L. Kupper, “Prevalence
of Partner Violence in Same-Sex Romantic and Sexual Relationships in a National Sample of
Adolescents,” Journal of Adolescent Health 35, no. 2 (2004): 124–31.
3. Halpern et al., “Prevalence of Partner Violence.” Carolyn Tucker Halpern, Selene G.
Oslak, Mary L. Young, Sandra L. Martin, and Lawrence L. Kupper, “Partner Violence among
Adolescents in Opposite-Sex Romantic Relationships: Findings from the National Longitudi-
nal Study of Adolescent Health,” American Journal of Public Health 91, no. 10 (October 2001).

©For
2010 by
moreHazelden Foundation. Allorrights
information to reserved.
order, visit hazelden.org/bookstore or call 800-328-9000.
Duplicating this page for personal or group use is permissible. 5
© Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. All rights reserved. 6 of 11
 4. S. Miller-Johnson, D. Gorman-Smith, T. Sullivan, P. Orpinas, T. R. Simon, “Parent and
Peer Predictors of Physical Dating Violence Perpetration in Early Adolescence: Tests of Mod-
eration and Gender Differences,” Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology 38 no.
4 (2009): 538–50. B. Taylor, N. Stein, A. R. Mack, T. J. Horwood, and F. Burden, Experimental
Evaluation of Gender Violence/Harassment Prevention Programs in Middle Schools. Final
Report. (National Institute of Justice, 2008).
5. J. Henton, R. Cate, J. Koval, S. Lloyd, and S. Christopher, “Romance and Violence in
Dating Relationships,” Journal of Family Issues 4, no. 3 (1983): 467–82.
6. Robin Warshaw, I Never Called It Rape: The MS. Report on Recognizing, Fighting and
Surviving Date and Acquaintance Rape (New York: Harper and Row, 1988).
7. Carol Sousa, “The Dating Violence Intervention Project,” in Dating Violence: Young
Women in Danger, ed. Barrie Levy (Englewood, N.J.: Seal Press, 1998).
8. J. Archer, “Sex Differences in Aggression between Heterosexual Partners: A Meta-analytic
Review,” Psychological Bulletin 126 (2000): 651–80.
9. Archer, “Sex Differences.” V. A. Foshee, T. Benefield, C. Suchindran, S. T. Ennett, K. E.
Bauman, K. J. Karriker-Jaffe, H. L. McNaughton, Reyes, J. Mathias, The Development of
Four Types of Adolescent Dating Abuse and Selected Demographic Correlates,” Journal of
Research on Adolescence 19, no. 3 (2009): 380–400.
10. A. Brown, E. Cosgrave, E. Killackey, R. Purcell, J. Buckby, and A. Yung, “The Longitu-
dinal Association of Adolescent Dating Violence with Psychiatric Disorders and Functioning,”
Journal of Interpersonal Violence (2008), DOI:10.1177/0886260508327700. D. M. Ackard,
M. E. Eisenberg, and D. Neumark-Sztainer, “Long-term Impact of Adolescent Dating Violence
on the Behavioral and Psychological Health of Male and Female Youth,” Journal of Pediatrics
151 (2007): 476–81. T. A. Roberts, J. D. Klein, and S. Fisher, “Longitudinal Effect of Intimate
Partner Abuse on High-Risk Behavior among Adolescents,” Archives of Pediatric Adolescent
Medicine 157 (2003): 875–81.

For more information or to order, visit hazelden.org/bookstore or call 800-328-9000.

©©
2010 by Hazelden
Hazelden BettyFoundation. All rightsAll
Ford Foundation. reserved.
rights reserved.
Duplicating this page for personal or group use is permissible.
7 of
6 11
 Curriculum Scope and Sequence

SeSSion 1: SeSSion 2: SeSSion 3: SeSSion 4: SeSSion 5:

Defining Caring Defining Why Do hoW to help helping frienDs
relationships Dating abuse people abuse? frienDs

By the end of this session, students will be able to do the following:

• identify the • identify harmful • describe the • recognize the • identify red
qualities that dating behaviors controlling and complexity of flags that
are most impor- manipulative the decision to indicate their
tant to them • define physically functions of leave an abusive friend might
in a dating and emotionally dating abuse relationship be an abusive
relationship abusive behaviors and the many partner or a
• identify abusive different opinions victim of
• identify actions • identify physical behaviors as about when one dating abuse
that are caring and emotional abusive should leave
and supportive abuse in dating • feel more
relationships • choose not to • recognize the comfortable
• describe how believe common difficulty and confronting a
they want to • be more likely misperceptions fear that a friend friend who is
be treated by a to identify of why dating in an abusive abusive in a
dating partner abusive abuse happens relationship may dating relation-
behaviors as
have in reaching ship
• describe how they abusive • understand that
out for help
want to treat a dating abuse is • understand
dating partner • be more aware a serious matter • describe a how to support
of their suscep-
variety of ways a friend in an
• understand that tibility to • understand that
to support a abusive relation-
they can and dating abuse abuse is not the
friend who is a ship
should choose victim’s fault
• be more likely victim of dating
how they’ll
to reject abuse • describe the abuse
be treated
in a dating as normal in serious short-
• describe the
relationship dating relation- and long-term
community
ships consequences
resources avail-
• understand that of abusive
able for teens in
they can and relationships
abusive dating
should choose
• identify the relationships
how they’ll treat
a dating partner warning signs
• seek help if
that a person
they’re victims
is a victim of
of abuse or are
abuse or is an
abusive partners
abusive partner
in a dating
relationship

For
© 2010more information
by Hazelden Foundation. or to order,
All rights visit hazelden.org/bookstore
reserved. or call 800-328-9000.
Duplicating this page for personal or group use is permissible. 7
© Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. All rights reserved. 8 of 11
 Curriculum Scope and Sequence

SeSSion 6: SeSSion 7: SeSSion 8: SeSSion 9: SeSSion 10:

overComing hoW We feel, equal poWer preventing revieWing the
genDer hoW We Deal through Dating sexual safe dates
stereotypes CommuniCation abuse program

By the end of this session, students will be able to do the following:

• understand • express their • describe the four • understand that • retain what they
that they and feelings or SAFE communi- victims of dating learned while
other people emotions in cation skills for sexual abuse are participating in
hold specific various ways resolving conflict never to blame Safe Dates
images of dating
relationships • understand the • demonstrate the • understand that
importance of use of the four rape is always
• describe how acknowledging SAFE communi- unacceptable
the images and communicat- cation skills
people hold ing their feelings • understand and
influence their • describe some interpret “no”
interactions • identify situa- nonviolent cues correctly
in a dating tions that trigger responses when
their anger a dating partner • know how to
relationship
doesn’t commu- protect them-
• identify the • identify physi- nicate in a way selves in a
harmful con- ological and that is fair and potential rape
sequences of psychological equal situation
gender stereo- cues that they’re
angry • state their
typing
sexual boundar-
• explain the role • identify a variety ies clearly to
that gender of nonviolent their dating
stereotyping ways to respond partner
plays in dating to anger
• describe dating
relationships
• understand tips to decrease
that they have their chances of
a choice in how being a victim
to respond to of sexual assault
anger or an abusive
partner
• increasingly
use nonviolent • identify date
responses to rape drugs
anger

For more information or to order, visit hazelden.org/bookstore or call 800-328-9000.

© 2010 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.
Duplicating
© Hazelden this pageFord
Betty for personal or group
Foundation. use is permissible.
All rights reserved. 9 of8 11
 Meeting National Academic Standards with Safe Dates

Using Safe Dates will help you meet the following national academic standards:

Health Education Standards: (Sixth–Eighth Grade)

• Describe the influence of culture on health beliefs, practices, and behaviors.

• Describe how peers influence healthy and unhealthy behaviors.
• Analyze how messages from media influence health behaviors.
• Analyze the influence of technology on personal and family health.
• Explain how the perceptions of norms influence healthy and unhealthy behaviors.
• Access valid health information from home, school, and community.
• Describe situations that may require professional health services.
• Apply effective verbal and nonverbal communication skills to enhance health.
• Demonstrate refusal and negotiation skills that avoid or reduce health risks.
• Demonstrate effective conflict management or resolution strategies.
• Demonstrate how to ask for assistance to enhance the health of self and others.
• Identify circumstances that can help or hinder healthy decision making.
• Explain the importance of assuming responsibility for personal health behaviors.
• Demonstrate healthy practices and behaviors that will maintain or improve the health
of self and others.
• Demonstrate behaviors that avoid or reduce health risks to self and others.
• State a health-enhancing position on a topic and support it with accurate information.
• Demonstrate how to influence and support others to make positive health choices.
• Identify ways that health messages and communication techniques can be altered for
different audiences.

For more information or to order, visit hazelden.org/bookstore or call 800-328-9000.

© 2010 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.
© Hazelden
Duplicating thisBetty
pageFord Foundation.
for personal All use
or group rights reserved.
is permissible. 10 of9 11
 Health Education Standards: (Ninth–Twelfth Grade)

• Analyze how the culture supports and challenges health beliefs, practices,
and behaviors.
• Analyze how peers influence healthy and unhealthy behaviors.
• Evaluate the effect of media on personal and family health.
• Evaluate the impact of technology on personal, family, and community health.
• Analyze how the perceptions of norms influence healthy and unhealthy behaviors.
• Use resources from home, school, and community that provide valid health information.
• Determine when professional health services may be required.
• Use skills for communicating effectively with family, peers, and others to
enhance health.
• Demonstrate refusal, negotiation, and collaboration skills to enhance health and avoid
or reduce health risks.
• Demonstrate strategies to prevent, manage, or resolve interpersonal conflicts without
harming self or others.
• Demonstrate how to ask for and offer assistance to enhance the health of self
and others.
• Examine barriers that can hinder healthy decision making.
• Analyze the role of individual responsibility for enhancing health.
• Demonstrate a variety of healthy practices and behaviors that will maintain or improve
the health of self and others.
• Demonstrate a variety of behaviors that avoid or reduce health risks to self and others.
• Use accurate peer and societal norms to formulate a health-enhancing message.
• Demonstrate how to influence and support others to make positive health choices.
• Adapt health messages and communication techniques to specific target audience.

* Standards are taken from The Joint Committee on National Health Education Standards. National Health
Education Standards: Achieving Excellence (2nd edition). Atlanta: The American Cancer Society, 2007.

For more information or to order, visit hazelden.org/bookstore or call 800-328-9000.

© 2010 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.
© Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. All rights reserved.
Duplicating this page for personal or group use is permissible. 1110
of 11