DEVELOPING AND EVALUATING A BRIEF SEXUAL VIOLENCE INTERVENTION TO SHIFT ATTITUDES, BELIEFS, AND BEHAVIOURS IN EMERGING ADULT MEN

Abstract

Sexualized violence has severe, far-reaching impacts on mental and physical health worldwide. Prevention efforts that focus on early education for at-risk groups, such as young men, are therefore being increasingly prioritized. The current thesis developed and evaluated a brief Sexual Violence Intervention aimed at improving attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours related to sexual violence and consent in emerging men (ages 18 to 35) in Canada and the UK. A pilot study was first conducted to inform intervention content and self-report measures for the main study. Participants (N = 498) in the main study were randomly assigned to complete either a brief Sexual Violence Intervention or a comparable Plagiarism Control Intervention in Survey 1 before completing a follow-up survey six to eight weeks later. Results indicated that, compared to the Plagiarism Control group, participants in the Sexual Violence Intervention group reported more prosocial attitudes towards subtle coercion, had improved scores on several knowledge quiz outcomes (e.g., understanding of consent and power dynamics), and were better able to recognize non-consensual scenarios at follow-up compared to the Control group. However, the Sexual Violence Intervention did not impact perceptions of ongoing consent, communicative sexuality, some knowledge quiz outcomes (e.g., consent and intoxication), and most perpetration behaviours. A significantly steeper decline in self-report sexual assault was observed in the intervention group at Survey 2, however, group differences in perpetration were not significant. Implications for evidence-based prevention programming and future research are discussed.