What undergraduates want in campus sexual assault prevention programming: Findings from a formative research study

Abstract

Objective

Campus sexual assault (SA) prevention programs are widely implemented, despite few having strong empirical support. To inform the development and refinement of prevention programs, we collected pilot qualitative data to capture undergraduates’ perspectives regarding desirable program characteristics.

Participants

Undergraduates completed an audio-taped interview (n = 19) or a focus group (n = 16) in June – November 2016.

Methods

We double-coded transcripts for a priori and emerging themes using NVivo 11. A third coder resolved disagreements; we assessed intercoder reliability using Cohen’s Kappa.

Results

Participants preferred SA prevention programming to be delivered in-person to small, coed groups of unfamiliar students. Students preferred programming with peer-facilitated, candid conversation about SA outcomes and prevention strategies. Participants also preferred for the tone of these training sessions to match the serious subject matter.

Conclusions

Students’ perceptions of desirable program characteristics differ somewhat from current evidence-based programs in several ways, highlighting important future directions for SA prevention research.

Keywords:

• College
• health education
• sexual assault

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the University of Michigan Medical School Institutional Review Board.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a small pilot grant and center support from the University of Michigan Injury Prevention Center under Grants R49-CE-002099 and R49-CE-003085. During his work on this study, Dr. Davis was initially supported by a NIAAA T32 training grant (#AA007747) and subsequently by a NIDA T32 training grant (#DA07209).