A Web-based Bystander Education Program

Study Summary

This is a study to determine whether a theoretically-driven web-based 3-hour intervention designed for male college students called RealConsent is effective in increasing prosocial intervening behaviors and in preventing sexual violence perpetration. Sexual violence programs for this population have been implemented for decades in the United States, but a program that is web-based and incorporates the bystander education model has never been implemented or tested. In this study, male college students will be recruited online, enrolled and randomly assigned to RealConsent or to a comparison condition. Prior to the intervention, investigators will ask questions about their intervening and sexually coercive behaviors and other theoretical and empirical factors related to the study outcomes. Investigators will survey the young men again at post-intervention, and at 6-months follow-up to determine whether young men in the RealConsent program intervened more often and engaged in less sexual violence compared to young men in the comparison condition. The main hypotheses are: (1) college men in the RealConsent program will report more instances of prosocial intervening; and (2) college men in the RealConsent program will report less sexual violence against women.

Primary Outcome

This scale is the Reactions to Offensive Language and Behavior (ROLB) index that measures whether or not men confronted inappropriate behaviors of other men. We used the 7-item self-behavior subscale plus an additional 8 items, which directly reflected the content of RealConsent. A series of 15 potential intervening situations were presented and participants were asked to indicate whether they had experienced this situation in past 6 months (yes/no), and whether they had intervened (yes/no). The

Conditions Studied

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL Bystander & Sexual Violence Prevention
• BEHAVIORAL General Health Promotion

Study Locations (1)