Provided by the Office of Health Education
Date: Fall 2014
Purpose of Training
Sexual assaults occur among college students across the country. In fact, up to 25% of women and 6% of men attending college will experience some form of sexual assault before graduating (Exner and Cummings, 2011). Along with these alarming sexual assault statistics among college students are various social behaviors and perceptions that may be contributing factors to these rates (Exner and Cummings, 2011). Applying bystander intervention training in relation to sexual assault among college students can help expel the social norms and acceptability of behaviors that may lead to sexual assaults (Exner and Cummings, 2011). Encouraging college students to step in and intervene in situations involving a potential sexual assault can be a difficult task based on the perceived social norms and perceived behavioral capabilities (Casey and Ohler, 2011). This training is designed to extinguish social norms that may be contributing to sexual assaults among college students and empowering students to step in and attempt to prevent sexual assaults from occurring.
Training Objectives and Goals
Among all the college students participating in the training session, 90% will be able to demonstrate a clear understanding of the definitions of sexual assault, stalking, and domestic/dating violence after the completion of the training and post-test materials indicating a cognitive understanding of sexual assault.At the completion of the fall 2014 semester and the implementation of the sexual assault and bystander intervention training to 200 or more students, there will be a 5% decrease in the number of sexual assaults reported to university police as reflected on the Cleary report of the 2014 fiscal year implying the effectiveness of the bystander intervention component of the training.
At the completion of each training session, 80% of college students will answer 90% of the post-test questions correctly implying a cognitive understanding of the training materials.
Training Setting and Duration
The sexual assault prevention and bystander intervention training will take place in classrooms, lecture halls or in dormitory classroom/study areas with technology capabilities. The Office of Health Education aims to make this training session available to all students and student organizations that may request the training. The training does require technology for the power point presentation and internet access for the video portion of the program. The settings of the various training locations can be both formal, a lecture hall with rows of chairs, or informal, a dormitory location with couches and other comfortable seating. The effectiveness of the program is based upon trainee participation which is possible in a number of different settings and learning environments. The training session will take approximately 45 minutes with 15 minutes allotted for group discussion and questions, one hour total. The introduction will take about 5 minutes at the beginning of the presentation, introducing the presenters and briefly explaining the purpose of the training. Next, a pre-test, about 5 minutes, will be given to the participants to establish an initial understanding of the information that will be covered in the training. The power point presentation will take approximately 25 minutes while incorporating discussions from the audience. An 8 minute video will be shown that enhances the importance of bystander intervention in sexual assault prevention followed by a 5 minute post-test covering the materials discussed during the training. About 10-15 minutes will be allotted after the post-test will be allotted for discussion and questions from the audience.
Training Materials
For this training, there will be a short introduction, a pre-test, a PowerPoint presentations, a video retrieved from YouTube and a post-test. The pre and post tests and PowerPoint presentation will be created by a health educator with the use of supported resources and health education theories and models. The training will be administered using a laptop computer housed in the Office of Health Education and projectors supplied in classrooms, dormitory classrooms and lecture halls. Internet access is necessary for the training. Pencils will be provided to trainees for the pre and post tests. A dry erase marker will be supplied by the Office of Health Education to be used on white boards in the classrooms for the purpose of training discussions.
Health Education Model
The sexual assault prevention and bystander intervention training was formed based on the Theory of Planned Behavior. The TPB states that behaviors are based upon perceived social norms, perceived behavioral control and attitudes towards a specific behavior (Simms and Byers, 2012). In relation to sexual assault prevention and bystander intervention the TPB related to perceived sexual behaviors of a specific population, identifying the possible warning signs of sexual assault and the belief that an individual has the power to step in and prevent sexual assault from occurring (Casey and Ohler, 2011). This training will address the social norms associated with sexual behaviors among college students, making trainees more aware of all the behaviors considered sexual assault in relation to behaviors that may occur on a regular basis on college campus. Also, the presentation will empower trainees to intervene in situations that may lead to sexual assault and help them determine a number of different intervention methods, emphasizing the behavior control associated with the TPB. The training will help college students understand their boundaries and awareness of behaviors and situations that may lead to sexual assault in an effort to prevent the occurrence of sexual assaults on campus. The TPB correlates closely to the goals and objectives of this training. Helping college students understand their potential roles in preventing sexual assaults as well as identify common social behaviors that could be contributing to sexual assaults among students (Simms and Byers, 2012).
Training Procedures
2. Pre test: A pretest will be provided to participants. The pretest is intended to measure the participants’ initial understanding of the definitions of sexual assault, stalking and dating violence. The pretest will also cover information related to the bystander effect and intervention strategies. The pretest will cover information that will be covered in the 3. PowerPoint presentation. Participants will be allowed 5 minutes to complete the test. Tests will be collected by the presenter before the presentation begins.
PowerPoint Presentation: The first 3 slides will cover the definitions of sexual assault, stalking and dating violence. The law and university policies will be discussed so participants have a solid understanding of the legal aspects of these definitions. Next, the importance of bystander intervention will be emphasized in relation to sexual assault. The bystander effect will be discussed on the next slide. Discussing the bystander effect will help participants understand the importance of taking action, even if they believe someone else has already stepped in. Common reasons why bystanders do not step in will be discussed as a group using the white board and dry erase markers. The goal is for participants to determine some reasons that bystanders would not step in during situations involving sexual assault before they are provided to them. The same learning approach will be applied to the common reasons why bystanders do step in during situations involving sexual assault. Next, the participants will be given three scenarios that could lead to sexual assault that college students may face. The audience will be asked if they would step in for each of the scenarios and how they would intervene I order to give all participants ideas and tips on how to intervene in the event of a real situation.
4. Video: After the discussion are complete the participants will view an 8 minute video that shows common situations that may lead to sexual assault and depicts the outcomes of situations when bystanders do not intervene and situations when bystanders do intervene. The video can be found on YouTube. Participants will be encouraged to share their opinions of the video and the situations depicted.
5. Post Test: At the completion of the video participants will be given a post test. The post test will be similar to the pre test and used to determine the learning comprehension and effectiveness of the training. Participants will be given 5 minutes to complete the post test.
6. Evaluation: Health educators will compile the data collected from the pre and post tests and make adjustments to the training based on the results. These results will be utilized to determine if the objectives are the training are met.
Evaluation
The objectives of the training will be measured through the pre and post test results and the Clery report complied each fiscal year by the University Police Department. The pre and post test will help the health educators view the effectiveness of the training among college students. The pre test and post test will determine the level of understanding of sexual assault and bystander intervention both before and after the training occurs. If the understandings of the training materials have not been met by at least 80% of participants, changes to the training and administering of the training will be reviewed. The Clery report will identify if the number of sexual assault that occur on campus has been lowered since the application of this training program. The bystander intervention approaches utilized in the training can be implied as successful if there are a reduced number of sexual assaults on the Clery report following the training. While there may be multiple reasons behind a decrease in reported sexual assaults the introduction of bystander intervention to college students can be implied as a supporting factor.
Possible Problems and Solutions
When utilizing technology and internet access there may be issues presenting materials to the audience. In the anticipation of technical difficulties, paper copies of the presentation will be available to all participants so that they can follow along with the presentation. If there is an issue with internet access during a presentation, the video portion of the presentation will be compromised. In the event that there is loss of internet access, each participant will be asked to provide an e-mail address where a link to the video can be sent. The participants will be asked to view the video on their own time after the presentation. While this is not the desired scenario for the training, providing students with the video in any way is important. There may be an event in which a participant will be sensitive to the presented materials due to their own experiences or the experiences of others. A statement will be made before the presentation begins describing the nature of the program. If a participant feels that the presentation may be a trigger for past experiences and the associated feelings those participants will be able to leave at any time. Also, contact information for the University Counseling Center will be made available to all participants if they feel they would benefit from discussing any feelings they may have as a result of the training or a previous experience.
References
Casey, E.A. and Ohler, K. (2011). Being a positive bystander: Male antiviolence allies’ experiences of "stepping up". Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 27,62-83.
doi:10.1177/0886260511416479
Exner, D. and Cummings, N. (2011). Implications for sexual assault prevention: College students
as prosocial bystanders. Journal of American College Health, 59:7, 655-658. Retrieved
Simms, D.C. and Byers, E.S. (2012). Heterosexual daters’ sexual initiation behaviors: Use of the
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