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Abstract
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OBJECTIVE
Bystander sexual assault prevention programs encourage individuals to intervene when witnessing incidents or warning signs of violence. According to a popular skill acquisition model, witnesses to sexual assault must demonstrate the following to intervene: (1) notice the event, (2) identify the situation as warranting intervention, (3) take responsibility for acting, and (4) know strategies for helping.
Methods
This systematic review and meta-analysis examined effects of bystander programs on the aforementioned skills and actual intervention behavior among adolescents and college students.
Results
Robust variance estimation meta-analysis using a sample of 19 studies (N = 7920) revealed significant effects on identifying situations as warranting intervention and non-significant effects on noticing events, taking responsibility for acting, and knowing strategies for helping. Programs had a significant favorable effect on intervention behavior.
Conclusions
Findings cast uncertainty around the proposed relationship between skills and intervention behavior. Future research should explore this relationship through causal modeling.
Language: en |