During 2022 and 2023, the project titled: “Habilidades para la vida en tiempos de pandemia por COVID-19: un programa dirigido a mitigar la violencia de pareja en adultos jóvenes” in Spanish, (Life skills in times of COVID-19 pandemic: a program aimed at alleviating partner violence in young adults) was developed as a result of research calls co-financed by the District Department of Health and executed by the ATENEA agency, responding to the public health problem of progressive increase in the rates of violence against women and girls.
As a result of this project, researchers from the Faculty of Psychology of the Catholic University of Colombia and researchers from the Universitary Foundation Area Andina, designed and developed the program “Conviviendo en Pareja de Manera Saludable y Segura CON-PAS” (Living as a couple in a healthy and safe way), which aims to enhance skills and help to change habits to mitigate intimate partner violence.
The program was conducted with 125 participants, working on skills like emotional regulation, assertive communication, problem solving, thoughts and self-esteem, and couple adaptation. Finally, the analysis of the results applied to this sample population, young people between 18 and 29 years of age of low socio-economic status in the city of Bogotá who were in a relationship, was carried out, which demonstrated the effectiveness of the program as follows:
Through the repeated measures ANOVA, significant changes were found in anger control (F =12538.20; p < .00; ETA=.99), thoughts and self-esteem (F = 21070.84; p < .00; ETA=.99). , communication (F =12114.86; p < .00; ETA= .99), problem solving (F =6267.02; p < .00; ETA= .98) and couple adaptation (F =4405.18; p < .00; ETA= .97).
Additionally, four PDF-format psychoeducational booklets called “Saber vivir en pareja en buenos y no tan buenos tiempos” (Knowing how to live as a couple in good and not so good times) were designed which were delivered to young adults who participated in the entire program “Conviviendo en Pareja de Manera Saludable y Segura CON-PAS”.
Currently, the program is adapted so that it can be repeated when the Bogotá population needs it and works in parallel with Sustainable Development Goal no. 3 (Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages), no. 5 (Achieve gender equality and empowering all women and girls) and 17 (Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development).
To find out more, look at the different publications that have been made on different media sources: