Preventing Sexual Aggression Among High School Boys

The present research advances the science of sexual assault prevention by creating a mutually beneficial partnership between well-established sexual assault prevention researchers and a CDC Rape Prevention and Education Program (RPE)-funded community agency to conduct a rigorous experimental evaluation of universal primary prevention programming designed to reduce sexual aggression among high school boys. The present research tests multi-session prevention programming that targets change at multiple levels of the social ecology (i.e., individual-, peer- and community-level) through social norms theory and bystander education. Specifically, the present research evaluates Your Voice Your View. Your Voice Your View was developed and is currently administered in Rhode Island High Schools by the CDC RPE-funded agency Day One of Rhode Island. The program will be tested in a group randomized cluster trial among 10th graders at 30 high schools, with the aim of reducing perpetration of sexual aggression among high school boys.

Specifically, this research will conduct a randomized controlled trial with a sample of 10th grade students to demonstrate efficacy of the intervention in reducing rates of sexual aggression among high school boys, rates of dating violence involvement, and related risk and protective factors over a 2- and 6-month follow-up in comparison to a wait-list control group. Thirty schools will be matched on demographic characteristics (i.e., % receiving subsidized lunch, racial/ethnic minority enrollment) and randomized to receive Your Voice Your View or to the wait-list control group.