Citation

Fenton RA, Mott HL. Violence Vict. 2018; 33(4): 645-662.

Affiliation

University of the West of England, Bristol, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Springer Publishing)

DOI

10.1891/0886-6708.VV-D-16-00074

PMID

30567766

Abstract

Violence against women students is increasingly recognized as a significant public health and human rights issue. The Intervention Initiative is a facilitated bystander intervention educational program commissioned by Public Health England for use by all English universities to prevent violence, abuse, and coercion. The success of the program with first-year law students at a large university in the South West of England was evaluated through course evaluation feedback and in a questionnaire study. Student experience was exceptionally good across all measures. In paired sample t tests, prosocial bystander behavior did not increase significantly from pretest to post-test immediately after taking part in the program. Rape myth acceptance, domestic abuse myth acceptance, and denial decreased significantly (p <.001; d >.599). Bystander efficacy, readiness to help, and responsibility increased significantly (p <.001; d =.408-.703), and intent to help increased significantly (p =.007, d =.248). Exposure to a concurrent social marketing campaign on campus had a significant strengthening effect on improvement of attitudes to rape myths (p =.010) but not any other outcome measures. No significant backlash was identified.

© 2018 Springer Publishing Company, LLC.

Language: en

Keywords

abuse; bystander; interpersonal violence; prevention; sexual coercion; students