About this trial
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.
Eligibility criteria
This trial accepts healthy volunteersQualifiers
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
Disqualifiers
None
Trial design
Parallel
Treatments tested in this trial
Online Family Violence Education Resource
BehavioralThe VEGA Family Violence Education Resources (© 2020 VEGA Project, McMaster University) is an on-line suite of educational resources that target professionals who are likely to encounter survivors of family violence in professional and clinical settings. The resources provide information about family violence, appropriate clinical responses, legal obligations, and more. The resources are broken down into several training modules and include three interactive learning scenarios. The training modules include: Know About Family Violence in Canada Creating Safety Recognizing and Responding Safely to Child Maltreatment Recognizing and Responding Safely to Intimate Partner Violence Voices of those with Lived Experiences of Family Violence
Treatment groups
Trial 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)
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
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
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
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)
Changes ttitudes toward utilizing evidence-based interventions and their importance in professional and clinical settings. Measured with the EBPAS (Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale) - fifteen items across four subscales (Requirements, Appeal, Openness, and Divergence) measured on four-point Likert scales (\"Not at All\" to \"To a Very Great Extent\").
Interview on experiences with the VEGA family resources
A randomly selected subset of participants will be invited to participate in an interview one month after the training to discuss their opinions on the VEGA Family Violence Education Resources, what they learned (if anything), and how their clinical approaches have changed.
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