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.

Adherence to Quarantine Protocols to Prevent the Spread of COVID-19: The Moderating Effect of Social Media Campaigns

“…that exposure to this had a significant effect on self-efficacy and controllability of bystanders towards the intention to intervene to prevent a sexual assault from happening. After seeing the campaign, participants of the study reported that they had a more positive attitude towards bystander intervention, a greater sense that the important people around them would expect them to intervene, and that they were equipped with more knowledge and skills to prevent a sexual assault occurrence (Sundstrom et al, 2018 , 2020). This implies that the media campaign successfully encouraged students to have better self-efficacy and controllability in their academic life.…”

Bystander intervention among secondary school pupils: Testing an augmented Prototype Willingness Model

“…Bystander intervention involves a level of planning (McMahon et al, 2015; Rosval, 2013) but the potentially reactive nature of intervention remains unexplored. Self‐efficacy is also clearly important in explaining intervention (Sjögren et al, 2020; Sundstrom et al, 2018), however, there is a need to differentiate this from other control factors. Furthermore, moderation contributions between social cognitive variables have not been examined in the context of bystander intervention.…”

“…Self‐efficacy involves perceived skill and competency over a behaviour (Ajzen, 1991 ). Existing studies tend to replace or conflate perceived behavioural control with self‐efficacy (Banyard, 2008 ; Banyard & Moynihan, 2011 ; Coker et al, 2011 ; McMahon et al, 2015 ; Pöyhönen et al, 2010 ; Rosval, 2013 ; Salmivalli, 2010 ; Sjögren et al, 2020 ; Sundstrom et al, 2018 ). However, these factors are likely to provide independent insight into intervention as factor analytic studies illustrate their independent effects on intentions and behaviour (Armitage & Conner, 1999a , 1999b ; Conner & Armitage, 1998 ; Manstead & van Eekelen, 1998 ; Sparks et al, 1997 ; Terry & O’Leary, 1995 ).…”

The role of moral norms as a determinant of intentions to engage in bystander intervention to prevent sexual assault

“…Derived from the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975), the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB; Ajzen, 1991) is widely known for its ability to predict and change health behaviors and has been applied in recent studies to BI programming related to sexual assault (Hoxmeier et al, 2018; Sundstrom et al, 2018). The TPB posits that one's intention (or overall motivation/readiness to perform a behavior) is the principal determinant of behavior, barring any deficiency in skill or environmental constraint.…”