The Efficacy of a New Sexual Violence Prevention Program With College Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Active, not recruiting
- Sponsor
- Universidade do Porto
- Enrollment
- 200
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Bystander Attitudes
Study Overview
Brief Summary
This research project will develop, deliver, and assess the efficacy of a new sexual violence (SV) prevention program for college students. The MOON program (Moving ON against sexual violence) aims to prevent sexual violence amongst university students, who are known to be an at-risk population for this form of violence.
The MOON program follows a bystander approach, aiming to teach and capacitate young adults to be active agents of prevention within their communities. To do so, the program combines education on several SV-related topics with skills-training activities.
Throughout five online sessions, the participants will be educated on topics such as sexual violence and consent, gender stereotypes, SV myths and bystander attitudes and behaviors. The main goal is to promote discussion forums, increase the participants knowledge on these topics and deconstruct pre-conceived beliefs/ideas that promote societal tolerance and acceptance of SV The program follows a bystander approach to support young adults in the development of bystander attitudes and behaviors that will help them act in situations of risk of SV. To achieve this goal, the program sessions will also have a major focus on building bystander prevention skills through online practical exercises (e.g., training scenarios).
Finally, the program also focuses on promoting empathy towards others, specifically in the context of sexual violence prevention. This focus aims to deconstruct victim blaming narratives and to build victim-support skills, to enhance the students' sense of responsibility and their proclivity to act and help others in need. Being empathic towards others is perceived as a crucial component in the bystander decision-making to intervene.
This clinical trial will apply the MOON program with university students nationwide in the Portuguese context and compare the participants who will take part in the program (experimental group) with other students who will not (control group). Thus, the RCT will be conducted with the following goals:
- To assess the treatment's efficacy, by evaluating the program's ability to significantly reduce gender stereotypes, sexism, and rape myths; and to significantly increase active bystander attitudes and behaviors and empathy towards other people.
- To examine the extent to which any changes are maintained three, six and nine months after the program's completion.
- To assess mechanisms of change, i.e., to test whether changes in cognitive outcomes, namely in rape myth endorsement, are associated with changes over time in behavioral outcomes, as bystander attitudes/behaviors.
- To investigate the role of age and gender as moderators of change over time in SV perpetration, gender stereotypes, sexism, rape myths, bystander attitudes and behaviors and empathy.
Detailed Description
Project Relevance:
Literature places evidence of consistently high rates of SV perpetration among university populations, highlighting the need to design prevention programs that target specifically this type of violence in this population. The delivery of the MOON program fits within the framework of human rights established internationally in the Istanbul Convention and aligns with the World Health Organization's recommendation of major focus on primary prevention for SV.
Design and Participants:
The present project consists of a randomized controlled trial (RCT). The study will be conducted following the guidelines by the CONSORT-SPI Group.
This project follows a longitudinal design. Participants will answer a set of self-report measures in five different time-points: one week before the beginning of the program (baseline), one week after the program's completion (post-test), and three, six and nine months after the post-test (follow-up assessments).
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel
- Primary Purpose
- Prevention
- Masking
- None
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 18 Years to — (Adult, Older Adult)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria
- •18 years old or older Enrolled in a Portuguese university Fluent in Portuguese (written and spoken)
Exclusion Criteria
- Not provided
Arms & Interventions
Experimental Group
Participants allocated to this arm will receive intervention (i.e., will participate in the MOON sessions).
Intervention: MOON Program (Behavioral)
Control Group
Participants allocated to this arm will be part of a control group, not receiving intervention and participating exclusively in the assessment time points.
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Bystander Attitudes
Time Frame: Assessed at five different timepoints: (1) baseline - one week prior to the beginning of the program, (2) post-test - one week after the completion of the program and (3-5) follow-ups of three, six and nine months counting from the post-test assessment.
Bystander attitudes - Bystander Attitudes Scale - Revised (BAS-R) assesses bystander attitudes in SV scenarios (e.g., "Confront a friend if I hear rumors that they had forced someone to have sex"). For each scenario, participants are asked to indicate to what extent the described is acceptable according to a 5-point Likert scale that ranges from (1) = "Not acceptable" to (5) = "Extremely Acceptable". This instrument originally consisted of a 4-factor model categorizing items/scenarios by (1) High-risk Situations, (2) Post-assault Support for the Victim; (3) Post-assault Reporting of the Perpetrator; and (4) Proactive Opportunities. The Portuguese version of the measurement consists of 14 items organized into three similar subdimensions: (1) High-risk Situations, (2) Victims Support/Protection Behaviors, and (3) Proactive Opportunities.
Bystander Behaviors
Time Frame: Assessed at five different timepoints: (1) baseline - one week prior to the beginning of the program, (2) post-test - one week after the completion of the program and (3-5) follow-ups of three, six and nine months counting from the post-test assessment.
Bystander behaviors - Bystander Behaviors Scale - Revised (BBS-R) assesses bystander behaviors within SV scenarios through 16 self-report items (e.g. "Say something to a friend who is taking a drunk person back to their room at a party"). For each scenario participants are asked if they ever been in the described situation and the response varies across "Yes", "No" and "I haven't been in that situation". The original measurement instrument is organized by a 2-factor model contemplating (1) Intervention Opportunities and (2) Proactive Opportunities.
Secondary Outcomes
- Empathy(Assessed at five different timepoints: (1) baseline - one week prior to the beginning of the program, (2) post-test - one week after the completion of the program and (3-5) follow-ups of three, six and nine months counting from the post-test assessment.)
- Myths about sexual violence(Assessed at five different timepoints: (1) baseline - one week prior to the beginning of the program, (2) post-test - one week after the completion of the program and (3-5) follow-ups of three, six and nine months counting from the post-test assessment.)
- Attitudes about gender roles(Assessed at five different timepoints: (1) baseline - one week prior to the beginning of the program, (2) post-test - one week after the completion of the program and (3-5) follow-ups of three, six and nine months counting from the post-test assessment.)
- Sexism(Assessed at five different timepoints: (1) baseline - one week prior to the beginning of the program, (2) post-test - one week after the completion of the program and (3-5) follow-ups of three, six and nine months counting from the post-test assessment.)
- Social Desirability(Assessed at five different timepoints: (1) baseline - one week prior to the beginning of the program, (2) post-test - one week after the completion of the program and (3-5) follow-ups of three, six and nine months counting from the post-test assessment.)