Balancing Community Input and Established Research: Findings from the Development of a Sexual Violence Prevention Campaign

ABSTRACT

This article describes a focus group study exploring university students’ perspectives of sexual violence prevention campaigns with the goal of developing a social marketing campaign that would resonate with university students. Seventy-one students at one university in Aotearoa/New Zealand provided feedback in 15 focus groups. Findings of an inductive thematic analysis indicate that students think sexual violence prevention campaigns should depict diversity in perpetrator and victim identity and focus on more subtle contexts of sexual violence. These findings have implications for the development of sexual violence prevention campaigns. In particular we discuss how universities must balance tensions between designing palatable and relatable prevention campaigns while also reflecting and addressing the underlying gendered nature of sexual violence.

Keywords:

• Rape prevention; university students; social marketing campaign; consent; bystander

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

K. Graham

Katie Grahamcompleted her PhD at the University of Otago in 2019 and currently works as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington.

H. Potterton

Hazel Potterton was Research Assistant at Te Whare Tāwharau, University of Otago. Her background is in psychology, mental health, and sexual violence prevention.

T. Mihaere

Tiana Mihaere (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Waitaha) worked on this project as a Research Assistant for Te Whare Tāwharau, is currently studying towards her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at the University of Otago.

B. Carrington

Briarn Carrington (Ngāti Maniapoto) worked on this project when studying towards her BSc with a major in Psychology and minor in Māori Studies.

G. J. Treharne

Gareth Treharne is an Associate Professor is the Department of Psychology at the University of Otago. He has expertise in health psychology and research methods.

M. A. Beres

Melanie A. Beres is an Associate Professor in Sociology and Gender Studies. She is also the Academic Director of Te Whare Tāwharau, the University of Otago's sexual violence support and prevention centre. Her research focuses on sexual violence prevention and sexual consent.