Dating Violence among Undergraduate Medical Students at a Public University in Mexico City: An Exploratory Study

Gender-based violence (GBV) and cyber-aggression are growing problems in Mexico, but there is a dearth of information on their associated risks. We aimed to determine the prevalence of dating violence (DV) and cyber-aggression in a public campus and compared students’ acceptability of abusive DV based on their sex and sexual orientation. We employed a cross-sectional design to survey 964 first-year medical students attending a public university. We analyzed who found “acceptable” abusive behaviors from a dating partner and carried out descriptive analyses of sample characteristics by sex. We included 633 women and 331 men. Homosexual and bisexual orientation was lower among women (1.5%, 4.8%) vs. men (16.9%, 7.2%). Of women and men, respectively, 64.2% and 35.8% reported having been in a dating relationship. Experiencing abusive behaviors in the year prior to the study was associated with students’ level of “acceptability”. A total of 43.5% of the students who experienced cyber-aggression did not report any mental health consequences, 32.6% did not seek professional help, and 17.4% reported feeling depressed. Students that accepted emotionally abusive DV behaviors displayed a fourfold risk of experiencing physical abuse. Women and sexual minorities are more at risk of experiencing GBV and DV. More male students reported being victims of cyber-aggression

Dating Violence among Undergraduate Medical Students at a Public University in Mexico City: An Exploratory Study

Gender-based violence (GBV) and cyber-aggression are growing problems in Mexico, but there is a dearth of information on their associated risks. We aimed to determine the prevalence of dating violence (DV) and cyber-aggression in a public campus and compared students’ acceptability of abusive DV based on their sex and sexual orientation. We employed a cross-sectional design to survey 964 first-year medical students attending a public university. We analyzed who found “acceptable” abusive behaviors from a dating partner and carried out descriptive analyses of sample characteristics by sex. We included 633 women and 331 men. Homosexual and bisexual orientation was lower among women (1.5%, 4.8%) vs. men (16.9%, 7.2%). Of women and men, respectively, 64.2% and 35.8% reported having been in a dating relationship. Experiencing abusive behaviors in the year prior to the study was associated with students’ level of “acceptability”. A total of 43.5% of the students who experienced cyber-aggression did not report any mental health consequences, 32.6% did not seek professional help, and 17.4% reported feeling depressed. Students that accepted emotionally abusive DV behaviors displayed a fourfold risk of experiencing physical abuse. Women and sexual minorities are more at risk of experiencing GBV and DV. More male students reported being victims of cyber-aggression

Cluster Randomized Trial of a Multicomponent School-Based Program in Mexico to Prevent Behavioral Problems and Develop Social Skills in Children

Background There is a signifcant gap between the prevalence of child and adolescent mental illness in Mexico and access to mental health services, especially those that are evidence-based. School-based interventions can signifcantly narrow this gap. Objective The study evaluated the efectiveness of the interventions Dejando Huellitas en tu Vida (Leaving Traces on Your Life [Huellitas]) and Criando con Amor, Promoviendo Armonía y Superación en México (Raising Children with Love, Promoting Harmony and Self-Improvement [CAPAS-Mx]). Methods Participants were 215 caregivers (Mage=38.4 years, SD=8.9, 82.9% women) and 202 children (Mage=8.6 years, SD=1.3, 44.06% girls) from four public schools randomly assigned to four experimental conditions (Huellitas, CAPAS-Mx, Huellitas-CAPAS-Mx, and Control) with pre-test and post-test assessments. Results Caregivers in the multicomponent condition reported signifcantly lower scores in child externalizing problems and higher scores in discipline, skills encouragement, social adaptation, emotional control and prosocial behavior than caregivers in the control group. There were also improvements in parents’ use of efective discipline and skills encouragement in the CAPAS-Mx group over the control group. Among the children, only those in the Huellitas condition showed a decrease in mediation. Conclusions Findings support the implementation of the multicomponent intervention in public school settings. Registry ID ISRCTN11345846, at https://www.isrctn.com