Secondary and 2-Year Outcomes of a Sexual Assault Resistance Program for University Women Charlene Y. Senn, Misha Eliasziw, Karen L. Hobden, Ian R. Newby-Clark, Paula C. Barata, H. Lorraine Radtke, and Wilfreda E. Thurston Teaching slides prepared by Clare M. Mehta

Research Overview To evaluate the efficacy of a program designed to reduce campus sexual assault 893 female first year university students were randomly assigned to either the Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) program or were provided with a selection of sexual assault brochures (control condition ). Perception of personal risk, efficacy for self-defense, and rape myth acceptance was assessed at baseline, 1-week post-intervention; and 6- 12-, 18-, and 24-months. Risk detection was assessed at 1 week, 6 months, and 12 months. Sexual assault experience and knowledge of effective resistance strategies were assessed at all follow-ups. The program increased women’s perception of personal risk, self- defense self-efficacy, and knowledge of effective resistance strategies The program decreased rape myth acceptance and woman blaming over the 24-month follow-up period. Risk detection was significantly improved for the intervention group Risk of completed and attempted rape, attempted coercion, and nonconsensual sexual contact was reduced over the follow-up period (reductions 30% -64% at 2 years).

Discussion Questions

Rates of Sexual Assault The authors report that the rates of sexual assault on college campuses have not changed in 30 years. Why do you believe this is?

Self-Defense Why might feminist self-defense or resistance education have had little effect on reducing sexual assault?

Percieved Risk Why might participants have perceived less risk during the first coercion scenario (unwanted touching) than the second coercion scenario (assault)? Should we encourage women to perceive risk during the first coercion scenario? Are there other types of coercion that may occur between unwanted touching and assault?

Attending Sessions Follow up analyses suggested those who attended more sessions had stronger outcome effects. What may have caused non-attendance? What could be done to encourage attendance in the future? Would sharing the outcomes of this study help?

Booster The researchers suggest that a booster might be necessary to maintain the large effects seen in the first year of the intervention. What would this booster look like? In what ways could participation be encouraged?

Risk Detection Effects Although there were differences in risk detection between the intervention and control groups at week 1 follow up, this difference disappeared at 6 months. The authors suggest that this may be because of the ordering of measures. Are there any other explanations that you can think of?

Barrier What might serve as a barrier to women using self defense against men they know?

Self-Blame One of the great outcomes of this intervention was reducing women’s self- blame after being sexually assaulted. What other strategies can we use to reduce this for women who may not have the opportunity to participate in this intervention.

Relationships The authors suggest that a possible reason for reductions in program effectiveness over time is that relationship to the perpetrator may change, with boyfriends becoming perpetrators. What else might change during the second and third years of university that might explain diminishing effectiveness?

Partner Sexual Assualt What barriers might exist for women trying to resist sexual assault by a partner? What types of programs might be able to address this issue?

Bystander Training How can bystander training and training programs be integrated into this intervention?

Adopting EAAA The researchers found that EAAA has positive effects that seem to last for at least two years. How can we encourage more campuses to adopt this intervention? What does your school do to address campus sexual assault?

Adopting EAAA Is this a program that could be adopted on your campus? If so, what first steps could you take as a class to explore bring this program to campus? What potential barriers do you believe would prevent administrators from adopting this on your campus? What might encourage the adoption of this program on your campus?

What Next? After reading this study, what research would you like to see done next?

Final Thoughts? Did anything else come up for you in reading this article that we didn't discuss?