Correlates of Bystander Readiness to Help Among a Diverse College Student Population: An Intersectional Perspective

Abstract

This study seeks to understand which socio-demographic variables explain bystander readiness to help (BRH) among a diverse (via race/ethnicity) sample of college students. This study uses an intersectional approach by investigating how gender intersects with variables, specific to a college student population (e.g., class level, college of major, sexual harassment on campus), to influence readiness to help. The results are from a survey about campus climate experiences, which includes a stratified random sample of college students from a large Southwestern university in the United States, with 964 respondents. We conducted bivariate crosstabulations, comparisons of means, and multiple regressions. The multiple regression analyses illustrate that for women, the single most robust relationship with BRH is experiences with sexual harassment. For men, the strongest correlate is being a student within the college of liberal and fine arts. The practical and research implications of these findings are discussed.

Are They Really Helping Them to “Get Over It”? Bystander Behavior After Sexual Harassment Incidents in the Fashion Industry

“…Second, the use of data from the real employment world to illustrate bystander behavior at the tertiary level of prevention has particular advantages over data used in numerous past studies. Previous work across all levels of prevention has focused on bystander behavioral intent—such as through laboratory experiments or surveys of likely future behavior—and on bystander actions, (Christensen & Harris, 2019; Franklin et al, 2020; Galdi et al, 2017; Heretick & Learn, 2020; Kroshus et al, 2018; Mainwaring et al, 2023) but not extensively in an employment setting where both personal associates and institutions are at play. Through the narratives submitted to Cameron Russell’s Instagram site, this study, in contrast, focused on bystander behavior data in the actual workplace, which albeit in a rather narrow field, may have some insightful implications for workers experiencing harassment across other sectors of the American labor force.…”

Bystander interventions for promotion and prevention: Applying promotion science, motivation science, and behavioral science to upstanding

“…The UPP model expands and integrates important elements of existing frameworks but remains limited in its focus and scope. This model excludes emotional processes, relational factors, social-ecological factors, power dynamics, and the intersectional social identities of bystanders, perpetrators, and victims (e.g., Banyard, 2011Banyard, , 2015Bennett & Banyard, 2016;Bond & Haynes-Baratz, 2022;Christensen & Harris, 2019). Future research is needed to determine whether certain factors and relationships are bound to harmful situations or if they can be extended from prevention upstanding to promotion upstanding.…”

Commuter Students’ Readiness to Help in Incidents of Campus Sexual Violence

“…Banyard's RTH model has been used by a handful of researchers to examine university students' readiness to engage in sexual violence prevention. For example, Christensen and Harris (2019) examined a number of intersecting factors, including gender, race, class level, college major, and history of experiencing sexual harassment on campus, and their impact on RTH in sexual violence prevention. This study found that overall, women had higher levels of RTH than men, but these results were modified by several other factors such as race, college major, and experiencing sexual harassment.…”

“…Finally, Cares and colleagues (2015) employed RTH measures in an evaluation of a bystander intervention program on two campuses and found that, generally, RTH increased among those who participated in the bystander intervention program compared with those who did not. Although these studies have researched a variety of demographic factors in relation to RTH (Cares et al, 2015;Christensen & Harris, 2019;Hoxmeier et al, 2018;Tredinnick & McMahon, 2021), none of them has examined the impact of commuter status on RTH.…”