Measuring Bystander Behavior in the Context of Sexual Violence Prevention: Lessons Learned and New Directions

Bystander Intervention in Football and Sports. A Quasi-Experimental Feasibility Study of a Bystander Violence Prevention Program in the United Kingdom

In recent years, social campaigns and high-profile cases have brought increased attention to violence against women. Athletes can be role models, shaping both prosocial and antisocial attitudes. Their engagement in violence prevention could be an effective tool to tackle violence against women through bystander intervention. This part of a mixed-method feasibility study reports on the quantitative evaluation of an evidence-led bystander program, Football Onside, implemented at a football club in South West England in June 2018 to February 2020. The study employed a quasi-experimental design with intervention and control groups. Football coaches and club members (n = 50) completed measures of rape and domestic abuse myths, bystander intent and efficacy, self-reported bystander behaviors, readiness for change, perceptions of peer helping and myth acceptance, law knowledge, and program evaluation. Fidelity was also assessed. The analysis compared between- and within-group differences in mean changes over time using mixed-effects models. Participant ratings of learning outcomes were high, and fidelity was maintained throughout the intervention. Between-group comparison revealed mixed results, with greater improvements in the intervention group for bystander intent and efficacy at post-test and follow-up, domestic abuse myths at post-test, and rape myth acceptance at follow-up. Model contrasts for within intervention group revealed improvements in rape and domestic abuse myth acceptance, bystander intent and efficacy, perceived law knowledge at both time points, and perceived peer myths and helping at post-test. At follow-up, intervention participants reported significantly higher engagement in bystander behaviors. No significant effects were found for perceived importance of legal knowledge. Our research highlights the potential efficacy of a bystander program tailored for football club members. Cluster-randomized control trials are now required to examine bystander attitudes and behavior change processes among professional athletes.

Scoping Review of Intimate Partner Violence Prevention Programs for Undergraduate College Students

Recognizing that intimate partner violence (IPV) negatively affects college students' health and well-being, colleges offer preventive interventions to address these effects. However, scholarly evidence on this effort has been limited, such that we know little about the risk factors addressed, theoretical approaches, target outcomes, and other essential intervention characteristics. To address this gap, this study reviewed evidence-based IPV preventive interventions conducted in U.S. colleges reported in 25 peer-reviewed articles and dissertations published between 2010 and 2020. Findings showed that IPV preventive interventions for college students were designed to address multilevel risk factors of IPV, typically via bystander interventions and emerging skill-building interventions. Most IPV preventive interventions were theoretically driven primary preventions or a combination of primary and secondary preventions. Most studies of program outcomes focus on awareness of IPV and bystander roles, but 44% of the included articles measured participants' behavioral outcomes (e.g., actual bystander behavior, reaction to IPV disclosure, IPV screening behavior, social emotional skill use, or decreased rates of IPV perpetration) based on participants' use of skill-building components (e.g., bystander strategies, healthy relationship skills, conflict resolution, communication skills, empathy, and self-regulation). Student participants in the included studies were predominantly white (>60%) and only two studies included any Latinx students or students at historically Black colleges and universities. This review indicates that future IPV prevention practice, policy, and research must further define and explore how multilevel IPV prevention approaches can address the various systems level of needs among diverse student subpopulations.

Development and Validation of the Bystander Engagement Scale for Witnessed Intimate Partner Violence: A South Korean Version

Bystanders play a crucial role in assisting and rescuing victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) or sexual assault, thereby preventing further harm. Consequently, an increasing amount of research has focused on improving bystander interventions in such situations. While many existing scales that measure bystanders' willingness to intervene and their behaviors are likely tailored to Western settings and primarily focused on preventing sexual assaults, pursuing diversity to make these scales applicable to a variety of contexts is necessary. This study aimed to develop and validate a scale from South Korean samples that measure the likely level of bystander engagement in witnessed IPV situations, named the Bystander Engagement Scale for Witnessed Intimate Partner Violence (BESW-IPV). Preliminary items, developed to describe various IPV situations that a bystander might witness, underwent content validity testing through expert review and cognitive focus group interviews. Afterward, the scale was administered to 311 participants from the target population in South Korea. The scale's factor structure was assessed through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The reliability and validity were rigorously assessed. The final version of the BESW-IPV comprised 28 items. Through EFA, "direct IPV indicators" and "indirect IPV indicators" were identified. Together, these factors accounted for 76.10% of the total variance. CFA affirmed that the final model offers an acceptable fit. The scale's convergent and discriminant validities were also well established. The Cronbach's alpha and the McDonald's omega values were 0.98 and 0.99, respectively. In contrast to many existing tools that measure bystander intervention predominantly within the confines of Western educational settings, we believe that the BESW-IPV can be applied in broader contexts, especially in patriarchal environments. Further research is required to translate and validate this tool in different cultural contexts.

Factors Associated with Engaging in Bystander Intervention Behavior Among College Students

Sexual violence (SV) is a well-documented and highly prevalent issue on college campuses that disproportionately impacts women, students of color, and students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ). In recent years, bystander intervention programming has emerged as a promising prevention strategy for colleges due to its success in preventing SV before it occurs using community involvement; however, little consideration has been given to the power, status, or position that a bystander has when deciding whether to intervene and weighing the potential consequences of their actions. In order to inform university campus bystander intervention programming and increase its effectiveness, more work is needed to understand specific student characteristics (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, history of SV) that may be associated with engaging in bystander behavior in SV risk situations. Using cross-sectional data from a large west-coast university, 592 students were surveyed about their SV-related experiences. Poisson regression models were utilized to determine the relative risk of engaging in bystander behavior by sociodemographic identities and history of SV victimization. Our fully adjusted model indicated that experiencing attempted and completed sexual assault was associated with engaging in bystander behavior; belonging to specific minority groups was differentially associated with engaging in bystander behavior, as was belonging to a minority group and having a history of SV. Personal histories, identities, and power inequity matter when deciding to engage in bystander behavior. Additional research is needed to create more well-rounded and population-specific bystander intervention programs that are inclusive of diverse student voices and experiences.

Looking out for You and Me: College students' Strategies for Preventing Sexual Assault in Drinking Contexts

Background: Sexual assault and heavy alcohol use are prevalent and interrelated public health concerns on university campuses. Surprisingly, however, few alcohol harm reduction interventions address this intersection to help students reduce both personal and community risks for sexual assault in college drinking contexts. Objectives: In the current study, students (ages 18-24) shared strategies they use to protect themselves and others from sexual assault in college drinking contexts, as well as challenges to implementing these strategies. A series of six focus groups were conducted across two universities in the U.S. (N = 35). Participants responded to open-ended questions focused on drinking and sexual assault (e.g., What are some of the things students might do to avoid or address situations where they feel pressured of coerced to hook up or have sex when they do not want to?). Results: Thematic analyses demonstrated students' awareness of protective behavioral and bystander intervention strategies that could help reduce vulnerability to experience sexual assault for themselves or others in drinking contexts. Perceived barriers to using bystander intervention strategies included student's own and friends' heavy drinking (decreased inhibitions, loss of autonomy), ambiguity in deciphering risk (lack of familiarity, minimization, diffusion of responsibility), and gender (gender norms, power imbalances). Conclusions: This study informs the development of interventions that help students identify strategies and overcome barriers to reduce risks for sexual assault in college drinking contexts.

A Systematic Review of Validated Measures of U.S.-Based Bystander Intervention-Related Constructs

This review aimed to identify U.S.-based, construct-validated measures of bystander intervention. Following PRISMA-P guidelines, electronic databases were searched, and emails were solicited identifying 8,559 articles for title screening. Abstracts and full texts were double screened, resulting in 24 scales meeting inclusion criteria: (a) measured a bystander-related construct in a situation where there was a potential for actual or perceived imminent physical or emotional harm, (b) written in English, and (c) statistically validated on U.S. samples. Most scales addressed the domain of interpersonal violence (67%), with fewer relating to bias/bullying (8.2%), mental health crises (12.5%), and substance use (12.5%). Most scales (71%) assessed the "take action" step of the situational model. The modal construct represented was intent/willingness/likelihood to intervene (50%). The average number of items on a scale was 14, and most (79%) provided Likert-style response options. None of the validated scales assessing behavior first accounted for an opportunity. Sample sizes ranged from 163 to 3,397, with the modal setting from colleges. Overall, samples were young (21.8 years old), White (75%), women (64%), and heterosexual (89%). Results indicate the need to validate additional measures that capture the "interpreting the situation as problematic" step of the situational model. Scales also need to be validated using diverse samples, particularly within the mental health crisis domain. Across all domains, validated measures need to be developed that first account for an opportunity when measuring actual bystander behavior. The information gleaned can be used to assist researchers in selecting measures and guide future measure development.

Bystander Intervention for the Prevention of Campus Sexual Violence: Opportunity, Frequency of Action, and Consequences for Confronting Those at Risk of Perpetration

This cross-sectional study examined students' (Campus 1, n = 1,153; Campus 2, n = 1,113) experiences with four situations of direct confrontation of those at risk for sexual assault perpetration. The most reported opportunity was to confront those making false statements about sexual assault; many students reported more than one opportunity to intervene in the past year. Bystanders intervened most of the time across the four situations examined in this study. The most reported consequence of intervening was that no further harm was caused. More nuanced measures can offer practitioners further information to tailor sexual violence prevention programs.

"It could bring down Greek life as a whole": Greek life members' perspectives on party culture, safety, responsibilities and consequences

OBJECTIVE

Describe Greek life students' perspectives of party culture, safety, and College Sexual Violence (CSV) prevention.

PARTICIPANTS

27 US undergraduates: 5 fraternity underclassmen, 6 fraternity upperclassmen, 10 sorority underclassmen, 6 sorority upperclassmen.

METHODS

Students participated in one of four focus groups, separately by gender and academic year. Facilitation guide addressed partying, sexual violence, and safety.

RESULTS

Greek life members described partying preferences, perceived safety threats, and actions they took to party safely. University efforts to support safe partying were not universally viewed as helpful.

CONCLUSIONS

Although Greek life students strive to create safe partying environments, there remain missed opportunities to mitigate risks related to CSV. The responsibility to ensure safe partying falls too heavily on students, resulting in universities missing opportunities to provide measures that promote safety while mitigating risks and potentially serious harms.

A Multi-Topic Bystander Intervention Program for Upper-Level Undergraduate Students: Outcomes in Sexual Violence, Racism, and High-Risk Alcohol Situations

Few bystander intervention trainings programs have evaluated behavioral outcomes in previously trained upper-level undergraduate students. Rigorous study designs are necessary to understand how multi-topic programs influence student outcomes to intervene against sexual violence, racism, and high-risk alcohol situations. A single-session bystander training for emphasizing communication strategies was developed for juniors and seniors on a private, Midwestern college campus. The training addressed sexual violence, racism, and high-risk alcohol situations and was evaluated using a randomized waitlist-control design in student-housing units. Online Qualtrics surveys were completed by 101 student participants (57 in the intervention group and 44 in the control group). Students responded to nine harm scenarios involving sexual violence, racism, and high-risk alcohol situations at baseline and 7 weeks follow-up. Between-group changes in scores were compared to determine the effect of the program on students' (a) readiness to intervene; (b) confidence to intervene; (c) bystander behaviors among students who witnessed actual or potentially harmful events; and (d) bystander reports of their experiences. Qualitative analysis assessed how the program influenced the use of positive verbal communication strategies. Program effects increased positive bystander experiences when helping someone who had too much to drink and needed assistance. Over time both groups reported increased confidence levels to intervene when someone intoxicated was being isolated with sexual intent. There were no further significant findings in readiness, confidence, behaviors, or other experiences, though some positive nonsignificant trends emerged. The program demonstrated little efficacy. Results suggest opportunities to improve bystander outcomes in low-risk primary prevention situations and racist scenarios, suggesting that targeted intervention of these outcomes may be useful when developing programming with previously-trained students. As universities expand prevention work beyond the first year, lessons learned may help inform multi-year programming across health topics to prevent harm and create healthier college campuses.

The Application of Bystander Intervention Scripts: Implications for Guardianship in Action

Responding to high rates of interpersonal victimization and perpetration among adolescents, schools have implemented bystander intervention (BI) training to educate students to intervene to prevent or stop violence. These trainings function much like an application of scripts for guardianship in action. The current study builds on the overlapping and complementary bodies of BI and routine activities research by testing whether participation in BI training, namely Green Dot (GD), influences individuals' underlying ability to intervene. Using four years of survey data collected from high school students (N = 2,374-3,443), we use item response theory to model the difficulty of engaging in different BI behaviors. We then estimate multivariate ordinary least squares regression models, one for each year, to estimate the effect of GD training on students' ability to intervene. The item response theory results show that BI behaviors differ in terms of how "difficult" they are for respondents to engage in. Findings show that in each year, GD training increased students' underlying ability to intervene. Our findings suggest BI training and guardianship in action scripts should take into account this varying difficulty of intervention behaviors to best train individuals for successful intervention to prevent victimization.

"It is Hard to Think About": A Mixed-Method Exploration into the Application of the Theory of Compassion Collapse to the #MeToo Movement

After the popularization of #MeToo in 2017, the conversation around sexual violence was brought to global attention. The collapse of compassion theory is proposed to occur in situations where individuals no longer feel increased levels of empathy due to an increase in the number of victims. This theory was employed to attempt to understand negative responses to #MeToo. The current study used a mixed methods exploratory approach to understand how exposure to multiple versus single victim(s) (image(s) and vignette) of sexual violence may affect participants' perception of survivors of sexual violence. We hypothesized that individuals who were exposed to multiple victims would demonstrate less compassion, higher levels of distance, more diffusion of responsibility, lower perceived efficacy, and less belief of the victim's story compared to individuals who were exposed to a single victim. We hypothesized that individuals with higher levels of rape myth acceptance (RMA) would endorse greater rates of distance and diffusion, and lower rates of compassion, efficacy, and belief. Participants, recruited via MTurk, were randomized into a single-image group or an eight-image group accompanied by a vignette explaining that the woma(e)n were victim(s) of sexual violence and naming the #MeToo movement. Participants in the single-image group expressed more belief in the victim's story and endorsed higher levels of psychological distance than the eight-image group. Higher rates of RMA related to less belief and compassion for victims and increased distance. In the qualitative analysis, three content areas were identified: (a) comments on woman(en), (b) comments on #MeToo, and (c) comments on sexual violence. The majority of responses expressed support for the #MeToo movement, with a smaller percentage expressing highly critical views including questions on the inclusivity of #MeToo and sexualization of the woman(en) in the vignettes. Implications and integration of results are discussed.

The Questionnaire of Intention to Help in VAW Cases (QIHVC): Development and preliminary results

Introduction

Violence against women (VAW) is a worldwide social and health problem of epidemic proportions. This violence is preventable, and bystander programs are one of the possible preventative strategies. The main purpose of this research was to develop a tool that, by applying a contrastive methodology for its application in different forms of violence (forms of gender-based violence, such as intimate partner VAW, sexual harassment at work, and street harassment, and common violence, such as a robbery), would allow measuring the probability of occurrence of bystander response in the face of these types of violence with good evidence of content validity.

Method

Firstly (Study 1), an initial version of a measure tool, the Questionnaire of Intention to Help in VAW Cases (QIHVC), was developed; secondly (Study 2), a Delphi (modified) study was carried out to obtain valid, content-based evidence; and finally (Study 3), a pilot study was carried out to evaluate the appropriate functioning of the QIHVC and, if required, to make any necessary adjustments.

Results and discussion

The main result is the development of a set of case scenarios and a questionnaire related to its content which constitutes the QIHVC and, in its initial approximation, seems to constitute an adequate and sensible tool to capture the differences between the characterizations of common violence and VAW and in the possible response of bystanders in the face of such violence.

What Works in Violence Prevention Among Young People?: A Systematic Review of Reviews

Violence prevention programs aim to raise awareness, change attitudes, normative beliefs, motivation, and behavioral responses. Many programs have been developed and evaluated, and optimistic claims about effectiveness made. Yet comprehensive guidance on program design, implementation, and evaluation is limited. The aim of this study was to provide an up-to-date review of evidence on what works for whom. A systematic search of PsycINFO, MEDLINE, ERIC, and Sociology Collection ProQuest identified 40 reviews and meta-analyses reporting on the effectiveness of violence prevention programs among young people (age 15-30) in educational institutions, published before October 2018. These included reviews of programs designed to reduce (i) bullying, (ii) dating and relationship violence, (iii) sexual assault, and (iv) antisocial behavior. Only evaluations that reported on behavioral outcomes such as perpetration, victimization, and bystander behavior were included. The reviewed evaluations reported on programs that were mainly implemented in high-income countries in Europe and North America. The majority found small effects on violence reduction and victimization and increases in self-reported bystander behavior. Our findings expose critical gaps in evaluation research in this area and provide recommendations on how to optimize the effectiveness of future programs.

Examining the Effect of Perceived Responsibility on Online Bystander Intervention, Target Hardening, and Inaction

Failure to take responsibility for intervening has been identified as a primary barrier to bystander intervention. Building on these findings, we examine how perceptions of responsibility affect responses to witnessing victimization in the online realm-a topic that has received limited attention. Using a maximum-likelihood selection model, we analyze data from the Pew American Trends Panel (N = 3709) to estimate the effects of respondents' perceptions of the role different groups should play in addressing online harassment on their likelihood to engage in intervention, target hardening, or inaction in response to witnessing online harassment, conditioned upon their likelihood of having witnessed such behavior. Findings indicate that the greater role respondents believe online users should have in addressing online harassment, the more likely they are to intervene. (b = .310). The greater role respondents believe law enforcement or elected officials should have in addressing online harassment, the less likely they are to intervene (b = -.135 and -.072, respectively). These findings have implications for future efforts to curb online harassment through users' crime prevention efforts.

Barriers to Bystander Interventions for Sexual Assault: Impact of Personal History of Sexual Victimization

Bystander intervention programs have consistently demonstrated a positive change in communitywide norms regarding sexual assault. However, much of the extant research is limited by the failure to measure the prevalence of opportunities to intervene relative to actual intervention behavior and the failure to examine how bystander behaviors may be affected by a personal history of sexual victimization. The current study aims to determine the relationship between a bystander's previous history of sexual victimization, perceived barriers to intervention, observed opportunities to intervene, and actual intervention behavior in a range of high-risk, low-risk, and post-assault bystander opportunities in undergraduate students. Male and female undergraduate students (N = 591) completed retrospective measures of their opportunities for and intervention in a range of bystander behaviors and perceived barriers to intervention. They also reported on their personal history of sexual victimization. The results indicated that those with a history of sexual victimization tended to perceive greater barriers to intervention than those without such history. Notably, individuals with a victimization history reported that they were less likely to notice a risky situation and to identify the situation as dangerous. However, noticing or intervening did not vary across different types of bystander intervention situations. In terms of gender differences, although men reported perceiving greater barriers due to the diffusion of responsibility and fewer barriers related to audience inhibition and skill deficits when compared to women, there were no significant gender differences in intervention behavior. Data were situated within current empirical and theoretical models of sexual and intimate partner violence, and implications of these findings for bystander intervention programs and directions for future research are discussed.

Adolescent Peers and Prevention: Network Patterns of Sexual Violence Attitudes and Bystander Actions

Peer sexual violence is a significant social problem that affects adolescents and can lead to negative mental health and developmental consequences. Peers are a significant source of influence for adolescent behavior. For example, recent studies show training teens to be bystanders can be an effective prevention strategy to reduce peer violence and harassment. Peers can also promote risky behaviors including substance use and violence. The current study examined how sexual violence-specific risk and protective attitudes (e.g., denial of peer sexual violence and positive peer prevention norms) and behaviors (alcohol use and bystander actions to prevent peer sexual violence) clustered within peer networks cross-sectionally and over time. Participants were 1,499 7th-10th graders who took surveys during an academic year and who reported having opportunity to take action as bystanders to peer sexual violence. Participants took surveys 6 months apart online in schools. Questions included nomination of best friends to capture information about peer networks. Social network analyses indicated that there was weak but significant clustering of positive prevention attitudes such as bystander denial and marginal clustering on reactive bystander behaviors to address sexual assault. For comparison, alcohol use and academic grades were analyzed and found to also cluster in networks in these data. These findings suggest that for early adolescents, peer bystander training may be influential for some key bystander attitudes and reactive sexual violence prevention behaviors as individual behaviors are not independent of those of their friends.

The role of campus environment on bystander intentions and behaviors

OBJECTIVE

This study examined students' perceptions of campus environmental factors related to bystander intentions and behaviors, and if intentions mediated the relationship between students' perceptions and behaviors.

PARTICIPANTS

Participants were 274 students at a southern university who observed a situation they believed was, or could lead to, a sexual assault.

METHODS

Participants completed an online campus climate survey in April 2015.

RESULTS

Nearly 70% reported intervening, 21.5% did nothing, 9.5% waited to see if they needed to intervene. Students' knowledge of campus policies and procedures and their bystander intentions were associated with bystander behaviors. Students' knowledge of campus policies and procedures and being female were related to bystander intentions. The indirect path between being female, bystander intentions, and taking action, as well as the indirect path between knowing campus policies and procedures, bystander intentions, and taking action were significant.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings provide important implications for prevention programing.

Analysis of Bystander Behavior Towards Intimate Partner Violence via Peerformance

This study of a South Asian community in the midwestern USA examines what bystanders do when they witness an incident of intimate partner violence (IPV). Because of ethical and safety constraints, in lieu of observation in a natural setting, data were collected at a Peerformance, a peer-led IPV prevention program, using the forum theatre method introduced in Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed. Event attendees were invited to respond to an IPV incident enacted by peer educators in which a controlling husband's behavior escalates to the point of suggesting physical violence. Using a grounded theory approach, we analyzed the videotaped bystander actions while applying pertinent aspects of visual analysis. Event attendees responded in variety of ways, exploring and/or de-escalating the situation, providing information, and encouraging the couple to resolve their conflict and/or seek outside help. They expressed empathy, support, and (dis)agreement with the husband and the wife. Their actions encompassed a number of dimensions: introductory, investigative, supportive/empathic, informational, instructional, instrumental, and confrontational. Participants' vastly varied responses to IPV within the same scenario suggest difficulty in developing a generic IPV bystander program. The findings also suggest possible directions for developing bystander programs to address IPV. In lieu of prescribing and/or proscribing specific actions in a given risk situation, bystander training can help participants build their repertoire of actions while collectively examining the strengths and limitations of various actions in their sociocultural context. Such bystander training is complex and difficult to manualize; it will involve reflexive and critical discussions and learning and trying out various possible alternatives. A Peerformance is a site of action, a realistic and familiar milieu where community members can imagine and try out interventions that may be different from the norm of indifference and non-intervention. It can open up new possibilities for addressing IPV in diverse communities.

What We Think When We Think About (Interpersonal) Violence: Understanding Knowledge Production

Amid growing consensus that violence against women is structurally produced, neoliberalism produces an individualist understanding of violence that blames women while simultaneously framing it as personal failings of men, obscuring the link between the structural and the personal. Using examples from federal grant funding opportunities in the United States, activism in Bangladesh, and data from qualitative research, I analyze how such individual readings of violence get produced–reproduced. I call for radical responsibility to produce equitable and just research that serves the communities that we study, not just the interests of grant funders and the neoliberal university.

Bystander Intervention Opportunities and Prosocial Behaviors Among Gender and Sexual Minority College Students

Bystander intervention education has proliferated as a popular strategy to address campus interpersonal violence, including intimate partner and sexual violence, which remain major public health concerns. Much of the work on bystander engagement, however, is cis- and heteronormative (i.e., centered on those individuals whose gender identity aligns with their biological sex at birth and/or who identify as heterosexual), thus failing to capture the experiences of students who identify as gender or sexual minorities (GSM), a population at increased risk for interpersonal violence. Research has demonstrated that cisgender females face an increased likelihood of victimization, which is related to greater awareness of intimate partner and sexual violence and results in more prosocial intentions and prosocial behaviors. The question remains whether this extends beyond cisgender females. The current study is a secondary analysis of data collected in a web-based sexual assault prevention course designed for undergraduate students and implemented at their respective institutions. Data from 474,395 undergraduate students, aged 18-23 years, were used to answer the research question. Results indicate that students' bystander intervention opportunities and prosocial behaviors differ based on GSM status. For example, although cisgender bisexual women, transwomen, and genderqueer/gender nonconforming (GNC) students were more likely to report having the opportunity to intervene in sexual assault situations, relative to cisgender heterosexual women, the latter two groups were less likely to intervene. Further, cisgender gay and bisexual men, as well as transmen and genderqueer/GNC students were more likely to report having the opportunity to intervene in dating abuse situations, relative to cisgender heterosexual men, and cisgender gay men were more likely to report having intervened. Given the call for centering research on minoritized student experiences, this research is a vital step toward recognizing the diversity of those experiences for GSM students, a population at risk for victimization.

Bystander Intervention Behavior as Function of Victimization History, Opportunity, and Situational Context

Preliminary research has demonstrated the utility of bystander interventions in reducing sexual assault, and initial research has begun extending this type of intervention to intimate partner violence more broadly. However, the extant research is limited by methodological issues that fail to examine opportunity for intervention relative to intervention behaviors as well as a failure to examine intervention rates across differing risk situations. Further, there are many unexplored factors that may impact bystander intervention behavior, notably previous experiences with intimate partner violence and sexual assault. Thus, the current study examined bystander opportunities and intervention across situations of varying risk to the bystander, as well as the relationship of opportunity/intervention relative to victimization history. Given the rates of sexual assault and IPV on college and university campuses, the research examined the number of times college students (N = 393) encountered a range of situations in which bystander intervention may be indicated, and their intervention behavior across varying risk levels to the bystander. Results demonstrated that individuals with a history of psychological victimization were more likely to intervene across all situation types, but sexual and physical victimization provided mixed support for hypotheses. No differences in witnessing or intervening were found as a function of gender. These results replicate previous findings, and further provide evidence for a more nuanced approach to examine bystander behavior intervention. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Self-Control, Opportunity, and College Students' Bystander Intervention in Sexually Coercive Situations

This study examines students' bystander intervention opportunities and behaviors using survey data from a convenience sample of 226 college students from a university in the United States. We approach this study with theoretical concepts from the criminological literature on positive peer influence, self-control theories, and social control theories. Bivariate correlations and logistic analysis reveal, contrary to our predictions, that social and self-control have only minor predictive power on the likelihood of witnessing and intervening in sexually coercive events. However, we find strong support for some demographic characteristics, peer relationships, and behavioral characteristics (such as binge drinking) as predictive of witnessing a sexually coercive event and intervening in an event. Our study adds to the literature on bystander intervention behavior and aims to inform bystander intervention programming efforts by identifying student populations that are more likely to have the opportunity to intervene in sexually coercive situations and sexual assaults.

Undergraduate Students as Bystanders to Sexual Violence Risks: Differences in Reported Intervention Opportunities and Behaviors by Racial Identity

Although substantial research has been dedicated to understanding the demographic and psychosocial correlates of bystander intervention behavior related to sexual violence, as well as the effectiveness of bystander training programs, both lines of inquiry often fail to examine potential differences in bystander intervention opportunities and behavior based on students' racial identity. Indeed, current research generally suffers from a lack of diversity in the study samples. Given this gap in the literature, the purpose of this study is to examine whether-and how-students' racial identity (White, non-Hispanic, African American, Asian American, Hispanic and multiracial) is associated with their reported intervention opportunities and prosocial response as bystanders to sexual violence risks. In the fall of 2014, undergraduate students (N = 9,358) completed web-based surveys to assess bystander intervention opportunities and behavior for six high-risk situations. Tests of independence revealed racial identity was significantly associated with bystander opportunities for four of the six situations, and logistic regression revealed that White students had significantly higher odds of reporting these intervention opportunities, compared with students of color. Tests of independence revealed that racial identity was not significantly associated with bystander intervention behavior, although logistic regression analysis revealed Asian American students had significantly lower odds of reporting prosocial intervention response for one situation, compared with White counterparts. In response to growing concerns about campus sexual violence, institutions of higher education are increasingly adopting bystander training programs to engage students as prosocial helpers who can intervene in risk situations. In line with these findings, research of this nature should include samples that reflect the diversity of their campus communities, explore what types of opportunities students of color identify as potential for intervention, and ensure these situations are captured in bystander behavior measures used in the field.

The Bystander Behavior (For Friends) Scale: Factor Structure and Correlation With Prior Victimization

The Bystander Behavior (for Friends) Scale (BBS) offers a promising method of studying prosocial bystander behavior in the context of sexual assault and intimate partner violence. The underlying structure of the BBS has only been studied in the development sample, which was predominantly White and from one university in the Northeast region of the United States. This single sample raises questions about the replicability and generalizability of the factor structure. In addition, confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) methods, which are favored for binary data, were not used in the developmental sample. There also is limited research on individual characteristics that may relate to engagement in different types of bystander behavior. The primary aims of the current study were to (a) use CFA to evaluate the factor structure of the BBS in a sample of university undergraduates recruited from four universities and (b) test associations between prior victimization (general and family-specific) and BBS factors. University undergraduates (n = 556) from four U.S. universities comprised the sample. Weighted least squares CFA confirmed the original four-factor model of the BBS, namely, Risky Situations, Accessing Resources, Proactive Behaviors, and Party Safety. The Proactive Behaviors factor was positively associated with both general and family-specific prior victimization. The Risky Situations and Party Safety factors were positively associated with general prior victimization but were not associated with family-specific prior victimization. The Accessing Resources factor was not associated with either general or family-specific prior victimization. The BBS is multidimensional, and the factor structure is robust. The different associations between certain types of bystander behavior and prior victimization highlight the potential value in considering the BBS factors separately.

BraveNet Upstander Social Network against Second Order of Sexual Harassment

Gender-based violence and domestic violence constitute a huge problem all across countries and continents. The COVID-19 outbreak and the lockdown produced as a consequence of it have contributed to escalating this problem. Many national organisms reported an increase in the data on domestic violence during confinement. Bystander intervention often constitutes one of the most effective mechanisms of attention. The problem is that bystanders do not always dare to intervene. This article aims to provide knowledge on the reasons for this lack of intervention and its connection to domestic violence, while presenting measures to encourage intervention and victim support, offering protection to those most in need during this pandemic. The research was conducted through questionnaires distributed online among social entities in charge of providing care to women suffering from domestic violence during the lockdown. The results have shown that most of these entities have had to intervene in providing support to women during the lockdown. In conclusion, the case of the Unitary Platform Against Gender Violence and the entities, which are members of the platform, acted in situations of domestic violence produced during confinement, based on the mutual support provided by being a group of entities that have the support of the Platform.

How Community and Peer Perceptions Promote College Students' Pro-Social Bystander Actions to Prevent Sexual Violence

The prevalence of sexual violence crimes on U.S. college campuses is prompting institutions of higher education to increasingly invest in centers to support survivors and programs to prevent the violence before it happens. Understanding bystanders to sexual violence and what may motivate them to step in and help is a promising prevention strategy. The purpose of this study was to understand how potential active bystanders' (first-year college students) perceptions of community (including a sense of one's influence in the community and positive peer norms for helping) and individual beliefs about self (including sense of responsibility and self-efficacy) affect their self-reports of performing bystander behavior to address sexual violence risks. Participants were 948 students at two different universities (one a rural, primarily residential campus and the other an urban, mostly commuter campus) in the northeastern United States. Regression and path analysis quantitative results suggest that individual-level characteristics may mediate some of the impact that community-level norms and perceptions have on bystander outcomes, explaining some of the mixed findings in previous research. Prevention strategies should work to change community norms and perceptions of mattering and perceptions of community influence in addition to the more traditional focus on individual-level violence specific attitudes.

Alcohol's Effects on Bystander Intervention Strategies to Prevent Sexual Assault

Alcohol's effects on bystander responses to potential sexual assault situations are understudied. In this mixed-methods study, we examined quality of bystander responses in intoxicated versus sober people. Participants were 121 young adults (ages 21-29, 50% female) randomly assigned to consume alcoholic beverages or soda water. After drinking, participants listened to a sexual assault vignette and completed a semistructured interview assessing how they would respond if they had witnessed the situation. Nearly all participants reported they would directly intervene if faced with the situation. Intoxicated participants and men were significantly less likely to use high-quality bystander intervention strategies than were sober participants and women. Results suggest that alcohol intoxication may negatively impact the likelihood that bystander intervention efforts will be helpful.

"Stand Up and Do Something": Exploring Students' Perspectives on Bystander Intervention

Bystander education is an increasingly popular primary prevention strategy for preventing sexual and relationship violence on college campuses. Although the evidence base for this primary prevention approach has grown substantially in recent years, more research is needed that accounts for changes in students' readiness to help and helping behaviors over time. In addition, because there is still much to learn about the factors that contribute to these changes in behavior, it is important to hear from students in their own words about their experiences with bystander education. This article presents qualitative data from a group of students who participated in a bystander intervention education program over an 18-month period and explores what conclusions can be drawn about the impact of this program on student attitudes, self-perception, and behaviors related to preventing sexual violence on a college campus. Themes that emerged from the data include students' increased knowledge about sexual violence, perceived changes in attitude about sexual assault on campus, students' increased desire to help in situations that could escalate to sexual assault, actual helping, and students' developing sense of themselves as persons of integrity and action.

Preventing Sexual Violence Through Bystander Intervention: Attitudes, Behaviors, Missed Opportunities, and Barriers to Intervention Among Australian University Students

The concept of bystander intervention is gaining popularity in universities as a mechanism to prevent sexual violence. Prior research has focused on correlates of bystanders' intentions to intervene and intervention behaviors in situations where there is a risk of sexual violence. The current study builds on this literature by exploring the nature of missed opportunities, including perceived barriers to intervention. In all, 380 Australian undergraduate university students completed an online survey. Measures included a rape myth acceptance scale, bystander intentions to intervene, actual intervention behaviors, missed opportunities for intervention, and perceived barriers for missed opportunities. Promisingly, students reported high levels of intentions to intervene in situations where there was a risk of sexual violence and reported relatively few missed opportunities to do so when these situations did occur. Intervention behaviors varied by important demographic characteristics such as gender, age, attitudes toward sexual violence, and the nature of the situation. Younger female students, with lower levels of rape myth acceptance, who had previously engaged in bystander intervention behaviors were more likely to report intentions to intervene in future risky situations, and female international students reported fewer missed opportunities for intervention. The most common barrier to intervention for identified missed opportunities was a failure to recognize situations as having a potential risk for sexual violence, and students were most likely to intervene in situations when the opportunity to help a friend in distress arose. This study provides some preliminary empirical evidence about bystander intervention against sexual violence among Australian university students, and identifies unique contexts for intervention and what current barriers to intervention may be.

Second-Order Sexual Harassment: Violence Against the Silence Breakers Who Support the Victims

Second-order sexual harassment (SOSH) is the harassment suffered by those who stand with and support victims of violence against women (VAW)¹. Because the vast majority of programs currently focus on promoting bystander intervention, for such programs to be successful, knowledge about and actions against SOSH are necessary. Through narratives, this article provides unprecedented clues about SOSH. Working on safety strategies for individuals who support victims, promoting solidarity networks that also address SOSH, and ensuring that institutional policies are enforced are found to be central factors that can help prevent and/or transcend SOSH.

TakeCARE, a Video to Promote Bystander Behavior on College Campuses: Replication and Extension

Previous research has demonstrated that college students who view TakeCARE, a video bystander program designed to encourage students to take action to prevent sexual and relationship violence (i.e., bystander behavior), display more bystander behavior relative to students who view a control video. The current study aimed to replicate and extend these findings by testing two different methods of administering TakeCARE and examining moderators of TakeCARE's effects on bystander behavior. Students at four universities (n = 557) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (a) view TakeCARE in a monitored computer lab, (b) view TakeCARE at their own convenience after receiving an email link to the video, or (c) view a video about study skills (control group). Participants completed measures of bystander behavior at baseline and at a 1-month follow-up. Participants in both TakeCARE conditions reported more bystander behavior at follow-up assessments, compared with participants in the control condition. The beneficial effect of TakeCARE did not differ significantly across administration methods. However, the effects of TakeCARE on bystander behavior were moderated by students' perceptions of campus responsiveness to sexual violence, with more potent effects when students perceived their institution as responsive to reports of sexual violence.

Beyond Yes or No: Understanding Undergraduate Students' Responses as Bystanders to Sexual Assault Risk Situations

The White House Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault recommends bystander engagement programming as part of campus sexual assault prevention efforts. Measuring students' bystander behavior, and thus, assessing the effectiveness of such programming, is a challenging endeavor due to the range of risk situations students may witness, as well as the nuances in potential barriers students may face in these situations. Currently, many studies include dichotomous measures of bystander behavior without gathering further information about students' opportunities to intervene, barriers to intervening, and intervention strategies. The current study sought to implement a more comprehensive approach to understanding the types of sexual assault risk situations students report to witness, as well as their response in those situations, reasons for not intervening, and any gender differences therein. In 2014, undergraduate students (n = 9,358) at a large, public university in the Northeast completed a web-based survey to assess bystander opportunities and responses for six different risk situations. Results show that prosocial bystander responses varied depending on the risk situation. Of those students with opportunities to intervene, noninterveners reported the situation was "none of their business" or that they were "unsure of what to do." Interveners reported to have either "confronted the situation directly" or "went and got assistance." We also observed significant gender differences in students' reported intervention opportunities and bystander responses. The findings of this study have several important implications for bystander engagement programming and future research.

Students as Prosocial Bystanders to Sexual Assault: Demographic Correlates of Intervention Norms, Intentions, and Missed Opportunities

Sexual assault is a major public health issue. Bystander engagement programs are becoming widely used to combat sexual assault on college campuses. The purpose of this study was to examine students' intervention norms, intentions, opportunities, and behaviors as bystanders to sexual assault. Undergraduate students (N = 779) completed the Sexual Assault Bystander Behavior Questionnaire in the fall of 2014. The t tests revealed differences in students' intervention norms, intentions, opportunities, and missed opportunities based on sex, race/ethnicity, athletic participation, and fraternity/sorority membership. The findings support the use of additional measures to assess bystander behavior and to identify student subpopulations that may benefit from programs aimed at increasing prosocial intervention.

Adolescent Bystanders Witnessing Cyber Violence Against Women and Girls: What They Observe and How They Respond

The widespread use of social networks has turned cyber violence into a serious problem. We performed a survey with 1,468 adolescents aged 13-17 years and found that almost one in four frequently observed different forms of cyber violence against women and girls. More than a third of the adolescents who witnessed the violence did nothing, and while girls gave more active responses to help the victim, both girls and boys normalized and even justified this behavior. Our findings also underline how little is known about institutional resources for victims. We also discuss the implications for awareness and prevention.

Measurement of bystander actions in violence intervention evaluation: Opportunities and Challenges

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

This review discusses design and methodological challenges specific to measuring bystander actions in the evaluation of bystander-based violence prevention programming. "Bystanders" are defined as people who are present immediately before, during and/or after a violent event, but are not a perpetrator nor the intended victim. Bystander-based violence prevention programs seek to prevent or mitigate violent events by empowering bystanders to intervene on acts of violence and social norms that promulgate violence.

RECENT FINDINGS

Effective bystander-based violence prevention programs demonstrate increased bystander intentions, actions, and attitudes [Bringing in the Bystander;12 iSCREAM;33; The Men's Project;20 and Green Dot,3] lowered violence acceptance scores19,21,22,23,36 and reduced sexual violence perpetration and victimization.3••,6,20 However, bystander-based violence prevention programs are methodologically challenging to evaluate, due to the wide diversity of programs being implemented and the multifactorial and contextual nature of acts of violence.

SUMMARY

Measures of bystander actions temporally-connected to specific, high-risk opportunities are recommended approaches to capture bystander experiences and address the methodological challenges in measuring bystander actions and evaluating violence prevention programming.

Campus Sexual Assault: Future Directions for Research

Campus sexual assault (CSA) has received unprecedented attention over recent years, resulting in an abundance of federal guidance and mandates. In response, efforts to address and prevent CSA at Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) across the country have grown quickly, including the development and implementation of programs and policies. Because the changes on campuses have occurred at such a rapid pace, a number of gaps exist within the field of CSA research. To ensure that changes on IHE are evidence-based, there is a need to review the existing research available and the inquiry still needed, based on key areas outlined in federal guidance, the expressed needs of campus community members, survivors, and students who commit sexual offenses on college campuses. The purpose of this review is to summarize the empirical research related to CSA gained from the past two decades and identify areas in which further work is needed, specifically related to key areas identified in recent guidance provided to IHE. This article concludes with guidance for research moving forward to help strengthen response and prevention efforts.

Perceptions of Community Norms and Youths' Reactive and Proactive Dating and Sexual Violence Bystander Action

There is enthusiasm for programs that promote bystander intervention to prevent dating and sexual violence (DSV). However, more information about what facilitates or inhibits bystander behavior in DSV situations is needed. The present cross-sectional survey study investigated whether youth perceptions of adults' behavior and community norms were associated with how frequently youth took action and intervened in DSV situations or to prevent DSV. Specifically, study hypotheses were that youths' perceptions of community-level variables, such as adults' willingness to help victims of DSV or prevent DSV, perceptions of community collective efficacy, and perceptions of community descriptive and injunctive norms disapproving of DSV and supporting DSV prevention, would be associated with how frequently youths took reactive and proactive bystander action. Participants were 2172 students from four high schools in one New England state. ANOVA analyses found that descriptive norms were associated with all actionist behaviors, and perceptions of community cohesion were also consistently associated with them. Injunctive norms were associated, but less consistently, with actionist behaviors. Findings suggest that DSV-related social norms, and descriptive norms and community cohesion in particular, might be relevant to youth DSV bystander behavior.

Social Dimensions of Sexual Consent Among Cisgender Heterosexual College Students: Insights From Ethnographic Research

PURPOSE

Nonconsensual sexual experiences on college campuses represent a serious public health problem. The preponderance of existing research on students' actual consent practices is quantitative, lab based, or focused on how single dimensions of social context shape consent practices. Filling those gaps and illustrating ethnography's potential to lay the groundwork for innovative prevention, this paper draws on research conducted with undergraduates on two interconnected campuses to examine multiple social dimensions of sexual consent practices.

METHODS

Data include in-depth interviews with over 150 students, 16 months of participant observation, 17 focus groups, and key informant interviews. Research conducted for this study took place between September 2015 and January 2017 at Columbia University and Barnard College.

RESULTS

Although sexual consent is often approached as an individual or interpersonal practice, this research highlights potentially modifiable social dimensions of consent. These seven dimensions of sexual consent practices are as follows: (1) gendered heterosexual scripts; (2) sexual citizenship; (3) intersectionality; (4) men's fear of "doing" consent wrong; (5) "drunk sex"; (6) peer groups; and (7) spatial/temporal factors shaping when consent is assumed.

CONCLUSIONS

Effective promotion of consensual sex, as a strategy to prevent assault, will likely require understanding and modifying the social structures that shape consent practices, rather than just legislation that mandates the promotion of affirmative consent. We describe seven potential modifiable social contextual dimensions of consent practices, along with related strategies to promote consensual sex and prevent sexual assault.

Increasing bystander behavior to prevent adolescent relationship violence: A randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE

The present research reports a randomized controlled trial evaluating TakeCARE, a video bystander program designed to help prevent relationship and sexual violence among high school students.

METHOD

High school students (n = 165) were randomly assigned to view TakeCARE or a control video. Students completed self-report measures of bystander behavior and bystander self-efficacy before viewing the videos. One week later, students completed the self-efficacy measure and were observed in virtual reality simulations of situations that offered opportunities to engage in bystander behavior. Measures were readministered at a 6-month follow-up.

RESULTS

Compared to students who viewed the control video, students who viewed TakeCARE self-reported more bystander behavior at the 6-month follow-up. They were also observed to engage in greater levels of bystander behavior in the virtual reality simulations at postintervention and 6-month follow-up. Self-efficacy partially mediated this effect on observed bystander behavior.

CONCLUSION

Video bystander programs like TakeCARE might be an effective addition to high school efforts to prevent relationship and sexual violence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

The escalation dating abuse workshop for college students: Results of an efficacy RCT

OBJECTIVE

Assess the efficacy of a college dating abuse (DA) prevention workshop.

PARTICIPANTS

85 students from Greek organizations.

METHODS

Two fraternities and two sororities were randomized to intervention or waitlist control. Participants completed a baseline and 3-month follow-up survey. Data were analyzed using MANOVA.

RESULTS

As compared to those in the control group, students assigned to the DA workshop felt more prepared to act as bystanders at follow-up and were more convinced that DA was a problem on campus. Those who saw the workshop also recognized more opportunities when they could intervene as bystanders with friends and strangers at follow-up than did controls.

CONCLUSIONS

The DA workshop appears to have influenced students in the desired way, although not substantially. It is likely that a longer follow-up period and larger sample would reveal more meaningful changes from pre- to post-test.

Control, Norms, and Attitudes: Differences Between Students Who Do and Do Not Intervene as Bystanders to Sexual Assault

Sexual assault is a major concern on the U.S. college campus. Engaging students as pro-social bystanders has become more common as a potentially effective mechanism for reducing the incidence of sexual assault and mitigating the harm of assaults that have already occurred. Understanding the influences of pro-social bystander behavior is imperative to developing effective programs, and the use of an evidence-based theoretical framework can help identify the differences between students who intervene and those who do not when presented with the opportunity. A sample of 815 undergraduate university students completed the Sexual Assault Bystander Behavior Questionnaire, a survey based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) that investigates students' perceived behavioral control to intervene, subjective norms that support intervening, attitudes toward intervening, and intent to intervene in the future. Two-tailed t tests revealed interveners reported significantly greater perceived behavioral control than non-interveners for eight of the 12 intervention behaviors, more supportive subjective norms than non-interveners for seven of the 12 intervention behaviors, more positive attitudes than non-interveners for only one of the 12 intervention behaviors, and greater intent to intervene in the future for six of the 12 intervention behaviors. Differences in the four TPB variables were not consistent for the 12 intervention behaviors. The use of a theoretical framework found to be effective in explaining-and changing-other health-related behaviors, and the inquiry into students' opportunities to intervene to compare against their reported intervention behaviors, is new to this body of literature and contributes to the understanding of the influences of pro-social bystander behavior.

“She Wasn’t Resisting”: Students’ Barriers to Prosocial Intervention as Bystanders to Sexual Assault Risk Situations

The White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault recommends bystander training as part of campus sexual assault prevention efforts. The current study sought to understand salient themes among students’ qualitative responses for why they did not intervene in sexual assault risk situations. In 2014, undergraduate students ( N = 9,358) at a large public university completed a web-based survey to assess bystander opportunities and responses for six risk situations. Content coding analysis indicated that students report several unique barriers to intervention. These findings have important implications for bystander training programs, as well as future research on bystander behavior.

Bystander Programs: Accommodating or Derailing Sexism?

Bystander programs implemented to meet federal requirements to reduce sexual assaults on college campuses in the United States must include primary prevention. Survey data (n = 280) and interview data (n = 20) presented in this paper explore students’ hypothetical and actual willingness to intervene as bystanders. Although most students surveyed (57%) claim they would be very likely to intervene, fewer than half would be very suspicious of someone leading away an intoxicated individual at a party (45% of women and 28% of men: p < 0.01). Interview data reveal how students perceive risk factors at college parties and what types of bystander measures they attempt, including “distractions”, a nonconfrontational tactic in which bystanders avoid more direct but socially risky interventions. Subsumed in many current bystander programs is an invisible element of valorizing harmony. Condoning bystanders’ unwillingness to directly confront seemingly predatory individuals could make change seem out of reach and could also embolden offenders whose behavior is observed and only temporarily thwarted.

Revising existing instruments for measuring bystander intervention opportunity and frequency of prosocial response for the prevention of sexual violence

Institutions of higher education increasingly offer training programmes to engage students' as pro-social bystanders who can intervene in situations related to sexual violence. The purpose of this study was to assess the usage of a bystander behaviour measurement tool that captures both students' intervention opportunities and frequency of prosocial response. University undergraduate students in the Northwestern USA (n=474) completed online surveys in the Fall of 2016. Results show that students have opportunities to intervene in a variety of situations at the three levels of prevention for campus sexual violence and they do not always intervene. The frequency of students' prosocial bystander response ranged, for those with the opportunity, from 'never' to 'always'; students reported varying degrees of intervention frequency depending on the situation. A bystander intervention behaviour instrument measuring opportunity and frequency of response can be a valuable tool for assessing the effectiveness of bystander training programmes.