It’s Your Place: Development and Evaluation of an Evidence-Based Bystander Intervention Campaign

ABSTRACT

Preventing sexual assault on college campuses is a national priority. Bystander intervention offers a promising approach to change social norms and prevent sexual misconduct. This study presents the implementation and evaluation of a theory-based campaign to promote active bystander intervention. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) served as a conceptual framework throughout campaign development and evaluation. Formative research published elsewhere was used to develop campaign strategies, communication channels, and messages, including “It is your place to prevent sexual assault: You’re not ruining a good time.” The It’s Your Place multi-media campaign fosters a culture of bystander intervention through peer-to-peer facilitation and training, as well as traditional and new media platforms. A cross-sectional post-test only web-based survey was designed to evaluate the campaign and test the TPB’s ability to accurately predict intention to intervene. Survey data were collected from 1,505 currently enrolled students. The TPB model predicted intention to intervene. There was a significant effect of campaign exposure on attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral intention. This theory-based communication campaign offers implications for promoting active bystander intervention and reducing sexual assault.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to recognize Maja Grzejdziak and Alison Berk for their significant contributions to campaign efforts.

Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge College of Charleston’s Center for Partnerships to Improve Education (CPIE) and the Division of Student Affairs for financially supporting this research.

Notes

¹ In partnership with People Against Rape (PAR), students in a Communication capstone course developed the “Amazing Bystander Race” to recognize the university’s amazing bystanders. This community awareness event included a scavenger-hunt race with teams of four working together to complete 10 tasks related to bystander intervention. The winning team earned the title Amazing Bystanders and received a trophy and a prize basket including gift cards, goodies, and PAR promotional items.

² X2 = Chi-squared; CFI = Comparative Fit Index; RMSEA = Root Mean-Square Error of Approximation.