A Web-based Bystander Education Program (RealConsent)

Preventing Violence Against Women: A Web-based Approach

This is a study to determine whether a theoretically-driven web-based 3-hour intervention designed for male college students called RealConsent is effective in increasing prosocial intervening behaviors and in preventing sexual violence perpetration. Sexual violence programs for this population have been implemented for decades in the United States, but a program that is web-based and incorporates the bystander education model has never been implemented or tested. In this study, male college students will be recruited online, enrolled and randomly assigned to RealConsent or to a comparison condition. Prior to the intervention, investigators will ask questions about their intervening and sexually coercive behaviors and other theoretical and empirical factors related to the study outcomes. Investigators will survey the young men again at post-intervention, and at 6-months follow-up to determine whether young men in the RealConsent program intervened more often and engaged in less sexual violence compared to young men in the comparison condition. The main hypotheses are: (1) college men in the RealConsent program will report more instances of prosocial intervening; and (2) college men in the RealConsent program will report less sexual violence against women.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Sexual Violence
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: General Health Promotion; Behavioral: Bystander & Sexual Violence Prevention

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 743
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Georgia
    • Atlanta, Georgia, United States, 30303
      • Georgia State University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 24 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: Male

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Student matriculated at Georgia State University
• Male
• 18 to 24
• Undergraduate
• Self-identify as heterosexual or bisexual

Exclusion Criteria:

• Graduate student
• Self-identify as homosexual

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Placebo Comparator: General Health promotion; A 3-hour general mental health web-based program.	Behavioral: General Health Promotion; This general health promotion web-based program is 3-hours and provides a range of activities related to reducing day-to day stress and alleviating anxiety through meditation and exercise.; Other Names: Stress & Mood Management
Experimental: Bystander & Sexual Violence Prevention; A 3-hour web-based program designed to teach male college student bystanders to intervene.	Behavioral: Bystander & Sexual Violence Prevention; This 3-hour web-based program consists of six 30-minute modules that are interactive and range in number of segments (1-14) and types of activities. Each of the modules involves interactivity, didactic activities and two episodes of a serial drama, which allows for the modeling of positive behaviors and illustrate both positive and negative outcome expectations for intervening and for perpetrating abuse against women. Behaviors modeled include communicating with female sex partners, obtaining informed consent to have sex, and intervening to prevent abuse from taking place.; Other Names: RealConsent

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Prosocial Intervening Behavior	This scale is the Reactions to Offensive Language and Behavior (ROLB) index that measures whether or not men confronted inappropriate behaviors of other men. We used the 7-item self-behavior subscale plus an additional 8 items, which directly reflected the content of RealConsent. A series of 15 potential intervening situations were presented and participants were asked to indicate whether they had experienced this situation in past 6 months (yes/no), and whether they had intervened (yes/no). The scale ranged from 0% (did not intervene anytime) to 100% (intervened every time).	6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Sexual Violence Perpetration	This scale is the Conflict Tactics Scale revised, Sexual Coercion Subscale and assessed the number of sexually coercive/violent behaviors engaged in during the past 6 months. The index ranges from 0 (no engagement in any sexual violence) to 7 (engaged in all 7 sexually violent behaviors).	6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Emory University
• Collaborators: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Laura F Salazar, PhD, Emory University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Salazar LF, Vivolo-Kantor A, Hardin J, Berkowitz A. A web-based sexual violence bystander intervention for male college students: randomized controlled trial. J Med Internet Res. 2014 Sep 5;16(9):e203. doi: 10.2196/jmir.3426.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: February 1, 2010
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 1, 2011
• Study Completion (Actual): May 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 17, 2013
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 17, 2013
• First Posted (Estimate): July 19, 2013

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): July 23, 2014
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 22, 2014
• Last Verified: July 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB00000472; R49CE000892 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract); EmoryVAW (Other Identifier: Other)