Creating short films to prevent teen dating violence: Italian adolescents’ perceived third-person effect

The paper explores the role of filmmaking in teen dating violence prevention programs. Through six focus groups, we investigated the perceived effectiveness and the perceived third-person effects that short-films have on 42 Italian adolescents who took part in a European teen dating violence preventive program. The preliminary results of this pilot study indicate that short-films created by participants are perceived as an effective how-to guide to managing toxic relationships. They helped adolescents internalize the knowledge and skills provided by the preventive program. Participants believe short-films have a greater effect on others than on themselves, namely: increasing awareness of perpetrators and producing an attitudinal change effect on victims.