Implementing school-wide sexual assault prevention in middle schools: A qualitative analysis of school stakeholder perspectives

Sexual assault and harassment are significant problems that begin early in the lifespan. The current study sought to understand the contextual factors that influence the implementation of school-wide sexual assault prevention programs in middle schools that focus on fostering community norms change. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) is a menu of constructs arranged across 5 domains that assists stakeholders in assessing and identifying site-specific determinants of successful intervention implementation. In the present study, researchers conducted a series of 10 interviews with middle school stakeholders (i.e., principals, guidance counselors, teachers) to document characteristics inside and outside of the school environment (i.e., cultural norms, relative priority, prior interventions, implementation climate) relevant to the implementation of prevention programming, using the CFIR as a guiding framework for analysis. Whereas schools recognized the importance of implementing violence prevention programming, stakeholders reported several other competing demands (i.e., time, resources) that make it difficult to implement rigorous programming without support from an outside agency/team. Community agencies and research teams hoping to implement violence prevention in middle schools can benefit from using stakeholder interviews grounded in the CFIR model to gain a better awareness of the school- and community-specific factors that are likely to influence successful implementation of violence prevention programs in middle schools.