A Methodology Report for a Multi-College Study of Bystander Training to Reduce Sexual Violence

PurposeThis report described the logic model driven, data collection strategies used to launch an evaluation of Campus SaVE's requirement that colleges provide bystander training to reduce sexual violence (SV).MethodsTo describe campus-level bystander training to reduce SV, our team recruited several large public universities. On each campus, we identified staff responsible for implementing relevant bystander trainings and conducted surveys and interviews with these key informants to describe their campus' bystander programming. Undergraduate students at each campus were electronically surveyed to measure their receipt of bystander training and SV experiences. Two student survey options were available at the campus level: a 11-item ('mini') survey focused only on bystander training and SV experiences subset and 'full' survey that additionally included multi-item scales outlined in our logic model.ResultsOf 72 eligible campuses, 17 provided survey data (Spring 2017-2019). Campus key informants were recruited, surveyed (n = 74), and interviewed (n = 68) to describe bystander program implementation. Electronic surveys were launched to 858,388 students; 100,306 completed surveys (response rate: 11.7%, range across 17 campuses: 3-23%). Using a recall of the past academic year, one in three students reported receiving a named bystander training; SV was disclosed as victimization (5.0%) or perpetration (0.6%). Psychometric properties of scales ('full' survey) indicated acceptable to good internal consistency for sexual harassment (alpha = 0.82), attitudes toward consent (alpha = 0.74), problematic alcohol use (alpha = 0.63), bystander self-efficacy (alpha = 0.76), and engaging peers in prevention (alpha = .88).ConclusionsThis methodology report can inform others attempting to evaluate bystander programming to reduce sexual violence on college campuses.