The Effects of the ©Violence, Evidence, Guidance, and Action (VEGA) Family Violence Education Resources on Canadian Clinical Psychology Students' Attitudes, Knowledge, and Behaviours
Overview
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Intervention
- Not specified
- Conditions
- Family Violence
- Sponsor
- University of Ottawa
- Enrollment
- 90
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Changes in perceived knowledge and preparedness, and opinions about family violence as measured by the Modified Provider Readiness to Manage Intimate Partner Violence Survey Items (Modified PREMIS)
- Status
- Recruiting
- Last Updated
- last year
Overview
Brief Summary
The current research project aims to assess the effectiveness of the ©Violence, Evidence, Guidance, and Action (VEGA) Family Violence Education Resources (VEGA Project, 2019) in improving the knowledge, self-efficacy, and clinical responses of clinical psychology doctoral students to family violence in clinical settings. The VEGA on-line training is a collection of family violence online education resources designed to inform health and social service practitioners about family violence in a Canadian context, including definitions of family violence, mandatory reporting duties, effective responding to survivors, and more. Participants in this trial will be doctoral students recruited from accredited Clinical Psychology programs across Canada. Participants will be assigned to an intervention or wait-list control group, and the outcome measures consist of knowledge and attitudes about family violence, as well as measures of skills relevant to appropriately responding to survivors in clinical settings. Further, participants will be invited to complete a qualitative interview after the intervention to discuss overall impressions of the training and other ways the training changed their perspectives, if at all, on family violence.
Detailed Description
The goal of the current research is to conduct a randomized controlled trial of the ©Violence, Evidence, Guidance, and Action (VEGA), Family Violence Education Resources (VEGA Project, 2019) among a sample of clinical psychology graduate students across Canadian universities to assess whether it is effective in improving responses to child maltreatment and intimate partner violence (IPV) (collectively referred too throughout as "family violence") in clinical settings. For this study, students belonging to accredited Clinical Psychology doctoral programs from Canadian universities will be randomized into either (a) an intervention group that will complete the online VEGA Family Violence Education Resources, OR (b) a control group who will not complete the training (but who will have the opportunity to do so following the completion of outcome data collection ; wait-list control). Throughout this evaluation study, a variety of pre- and post-training outcome measures will be administered participants; these measures are intended to assess reactions to the training, changes in family violence knowledge, changes in attitudes toward IPV and child maltreatment, and clinically relevant behaviours in responding to suspicions and disclosures of family violence by clients/patients in clinical practice settings. After completing the measures and the training, a subset of randomly selected students from the intervention group will be invited to participate in a one-on-one qualitative interview with a member of the research team via Zoom, during which they will be asked to share their perspectives on the training and how it impacted/may impact their work (or not) with clients who have experienced IPV and/or child maltreatment. Information provided from the quantitative measures and qualitative interviews will allow us to answer the following questions: (1) Was the training engaging and relevant to clinical psychology students? (2) Was the training able to improve the knowledge and self-efficacy of students regarding family violence? (3) Was the training able to change behaviours and improve the response of clinical psychology students to clients (or future clients) experiencing family violence in their professional training settings? Note: Used with permission from © 2020 VEGA Project, McMaster University. All rights reserved. All questions regarding the use and evaluation of the VEGA Family Violence Education Resources, or the VEGA Project more generally, should be directed to Dr. Melissa Kimber at vega@mcmaster.ca
Investigators
Elisa Romano
Professor
University of Ottawa
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria
- •Be a student in the Clinical Psychology graduate program of a Canadian university.
- •Be engaged in clinical work as part of program requirements
- •Speak and read English
- •Have internet access
Exclusion Criteria
- •Currently participating in any other training relating to child maltreatment or intimate partner violence outside of mandatory or elective course material.
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Changes in perceived knowledge and preparedness, and opinions about family violence as measured by the Modified Provider Readiness to Manage Intimate Partner Violence Survey Items (Modified PREMIS)
Time Frame: Week one (pre-training), and again Week four (post-training)
Changes in self-rated Knowledge/Preparation and Opinions about intimate partner violence and child maltreatment. Perceived preparedness to manage intimate partner violence and child maltreatment (14 items, 7-point Likert scale ranging from \"Not Prepared\" to \"Quite Well Prepared\"). Perceived Knowledge about intimate partner violence and child maltreatment (22 items, 7-point Likert scale ranging from \"Nothing\" to \"Very Much\"). Opinions about intimate partner violence and child maltreatment (47 items, 4-point Likert scale, ranging from \"Strongly Agree\" to \"Strongly Disagree\").
Reactions - Interest and Relevancy of Intervention Material
Time Frame: During Weeks two through three - completed during training period
Measurement of participant reactions to training contents, specifically in terms of the learning objectives and relevancy of each individual training module in order to examine engagement and interest. Agreement on whether training modules met their learning objectives, and whether training module content was relevant is measured on a 7-point scale from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree.
Changes in VEGA content knowledge
Time Frame: Week one (pre-training), and again Week four (post-training)
Changes in knowledge regarding family violence content in VEGA modules. Content knowledge measure contains 34 multiple choice questions about the VEGA Family Violence Education Resources. Each question has a maximum score of 1, and minimum score of 0, for a total range of 0 to 34.
Performing relevant clinical behaviours in clinical settings with clients, as measured by a Behavioural Checklist
Time Frame: One month post-training.
A checklist of a variety of clinically-relevant behaviours that are recommended and suggested as best practice when working with a survivors of family violence. Participants indicate whether or not they have engaged in certain behaviours. Participants may also indicate if they have not had the opportunity to engage in selected behaviours. The checklist covers 72 clinical actions relating to the VEGA family violence resources, with participants being able to select \"Yes\", \"No\", or \"N/A\" for each action performed in the previous 30 days.
Secondary Outcomes
- Changes in attitudes towards evidence-based practice and interventions as measured by the Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale (EBPAS)(Week one (pre-training), and again Week four (post-training))
- Interview on experiences with the VEGA family resources(One month post-training.)