Description and initial evaluation of a values-based campus sexual assault prevention programme for first-year college students

ABSTRACT

Preventing sexual assault in college and university settings is an important public health priority. The college campus is a high-risk setting for experiencing sexual assault while at university. Many campuses utilise brief educational programmes to prevent sexual assault, but these programmes are rarely evaluated. In this paper, we provide a programme description and evaluation data from a sexual assault prevention programme administered to first-year students during their first semester at a large public university. Relationship Remix was a theoretically-informed upstream prevention programme collaboratively developed by campus stakeholders to focus on healthy relationship skills and sexual assault prevention. Students (N = 2,305; 55% female, 71% White) completed web-based surveys immediately before and after attending the 1.5-hour group-based programme. On 8 of 10 items assessing programme-related knowledge and attitudes, findings suggest that the programme positively impacted students’ beliefs and attitudes related to consensual sex and preventing sexual misconduct. Importantly, the largest shift in beliefs occurred with regard to enhanced awareness of campus resources. Future research should examine behavioural outcomes and whether the programme may be effective in reducing sexual misconduct as part of a multi-pronged prevention strategy.

KEYWORDS:

• University
• college students
• sexual assault prevention
• programme evaluation
• sexual violence
• USA

Acknowledgments

We thank the following for their support for and involvement in the study: Chinyere Neale, Nicole Williams, Malinda Matney, Katrina Daoud, Carley Flanery, Heather Colohan, Mary Jo Desprez, Laura Blake Jones, Josh Peipock, Stacy Fete, and Scott Kohen, Meredith Philyaw-Kotov, the student volunteers of SAPAC and Sexperteam, and University of Michigan Housing Residential Education Staff.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Michigan Injury Prevention Center under Grant number #R49CE002099.