Reactions of Men of Color to a Commonly Used Rape Prevention Program: Attitude and Predicted Behavior Changes

Abstract

African American, Latino, and Asian first-year college men (36) saw The Men's Program, an all-male rape prevention workshop, and wrote answers to four openended questions to determine how men from non-white groups react to a commonly used rape prevention program. Using a multi-stage inductive analysis, participant responses fell into five main themes including reinforced current beliefs and/or no changes, increased awareness of rape and its effects on survivors, increased understanding of consent, plans to intervene if a rape might occur, and plans to change behavior in their own intimate situations. Participants mentioned specific ways in which they planned to change personal behavior, and ways in which they planned to intervene if they saw potentially dangerous situations.

Intersectionality and Perceptions About Sexual Assault Education and Reporting on College Campuses

“…Non‐White students were more likely to be “cheerleaders” for the program, and in doing so they expressed somewhat stronger support for the program than did White students. This is consistent with previous research indicating that Black college students report greater interest in sexual health education than do White college students (Gerend & Magloire, ); however, some research indicates otherwise (Foubert & Cremedy, ; Foubert, Godin, & Tatum, ). Our findings suggest that the structural disadvantages non‐White students experience may be associated with the extent to which they support campus sexual assault educational efforts.…”

“…A few studies indicate that, compared to heterosexual men, heterosexual women have more factual knowledge of what constitutes consensual sexual activity and that students who lack an understanding of what constitutes consensual sex have higher rape myth acceptance (Heppner, Humphrey, Hillenbrand-Gunn, & DeBord, 1995;Jozkowski & Peterson, 2013). In addition, there is evidence that non-White male students, fraternity members, and male athletes benefit from educational efforts focused on increasing their understanding of consent (Foubert & Cowell, 2004;Foubert & Cremedy, 2007). Beyond this, however, no existing studies, to our knowledge, have identified how variations in consent knowledge affect issues such as perceptions about sexual assault.…”

Using Masculinity to Stop Sexual Violence: Must Women Be Weak for Men to Be Strong?

“…Although Foubert and Masin did not test if the effectiveness of the program varied by ethnicity, it was found to be effective in a small sample (n = 36) of African American, Latino, and Asian American college men (Foubert & Cremedy, 2007).…”

Changing Attitudes and Perceptions of Hispanic Men Ages 18 to 25 about Rape and Rape Prevention

“…Unfortunately, the studies have focused on fairly homogenous populations: Caucasian college students or military-enrolled males. Foubert and Cremedy (2007) examined whether a group of African American, Latino, and Asian college students reported attitude change after being exposed to The Men's Program. After exposing 36 participants to the intervention, they were asked to answer several open-ended questions to determine how men from "non-white" groups differ in their responses.…”