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Objectives Bystander training is a promising form of sexual violence (SV) prevention that has proliferated in recent years. Though alcohol commonly accompanies SV, there has been little consideration of the potential impact of bystander alcohol intoxication on SV prevention. The aims of this commentary are to provide an integrative framework for understanding the proximal effect of alcohol on SV intervention, provide recommendations to spark novel research, and guide the application of research to bystander programming efforts. Method This commentary begins with a review of existing bystander training programs and the need to target alcohol use and misuse in these programming efforts. Next, pertinent alcohol and bystander theories and research are drawn from to develop a framework for the proximal effect of alcohol on SV intervention. Results The well-established decision-making model of bystander behavior (Latané & Darley, 1970) and Alcohol Myopia Theory (Josephs & Steele, 1990) are used to identify potential barriers to SV intervention that may be created or exacerbated by alcohol use. Additionally, the ways in which alcohol may facilitate intervention are discussed. Conclusions Specific recommendations are made for elucidating the relationship between alcohol and bystander behavior and testing the impact of alcohol at each level of the presented framework. Methodological and analytic concerns are discussed, including the need for more multi-method studies. Recommendations to guide the application of the present framework to SV prevention programming efforts are provided and consider how the proximal effects of alcohol impact intervention.

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The COVID-19 pandemic is a major stressor that has negatively impacted global mental health. Many U.S. college students faced an abrupt transition to remote learning in March 2020 that significantly disrupted their routines, likely causing changes in mental health. The current study examined changes in anxiety and depressive symptoms among 990 college students, from before COVID-19 had reached U.S. community spread to 5 months into the pandemic. Results indicate overall increases in anxiety and depressive symptoms; this effect was amplified as more COVID-related challenges with academic impact and loneliness were reported. Increases in anxiety and depression were buffered as a function of greater perceived positive changes attributed to COVID-19; the differences in anxiety and depressive symptoms over time were also lessened when greater perceived stress prior to COVID-19 was reported. Findings reveal an unexpected effect involving pre-pandemic stress, and highlight potential targets to promote resilience, which should be examined long-term.

Examination of situations in which bystanders missed intervention opportunities to prevent sexual assault can advance our understanding of how bystanders can prevent sexual assault. The present study utilized an incident-specific approach based on reports from 427 female sexual assault victims (ages 18-25 years) recruited via Mechanical Turk. Results indicate that bystanders had an opportunity to intervene before 23% of sexual assaults, alcohol use in settings with bystanders was widespread (by perpetrators, victims, and bystanders), and several factors were more common in situations involving missed intervention opportunity. Findings provide useful information for continued development of bystander training and new directions in bystander research.

Prior research indicates that adherence to the male role norm suggesting men should seek to attain social status (i.e., status) is positively related to prosocial bystander attitudes and behavior; however, moderators of this effect have yet to be examined. One construct that may influence this effect is benevolent sexism. The present study sought to fill this gap in the literature. Participants were 148 men 21-30 years of age from the metro Atlanta area who reported that they had engaged in heavy drinking at least three times in the past year. A moderation model was used to examine the independent and interactive effects of adherence to the status norm and benevolent sexism on bystander behavior within party settings for friends and strangers. The model predicting bystander behavior towards friends showed a significant interaction between status and benevolent sexism (b = .59, p = .021). The association between adherence to the status norm and bystander behavior was significant and positive among men who reported high benevolent sexism (β = .96, p = .003), but not low benevolent sexism (β=.15, p=.619). No such effects were detected for bystander behavior for strangers. Findings suggest that males who hold traditional male ideologies around chivalry may be more likely to engage in prosocial bystander behavior towards women in party situations, perhaps as a way of demonstrating their high status. These findings have implications for future programming for men.

Sexual objectification, the tendency to reduce women to their bodies, body parts, or sexual functions for use by others, has been theorized to set the stage for more severe acts of violence but has been largely absent from the existing sexual victimization literature. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of sexual objectification in mediating the well-established link between women's alcohol use and sexual victimization. A large sample of undergraduate women ( N = 673) reported their alcohol use (frequency and quantity), experiences of sexual objectification (body evaluation and unwanted explicit sexual advances), and sexual victimization. Results indicated positive bivariate correlations among all study variables. Path analyses showed that mild forms of sexual objectification (body evaluation) mediated the link between the frequency of alcohol use and more extreme forms of sexual objectification (unwanted advances). Furthermore, the combined effect of sexual objectification (body evaluation and unwanted advances) mediated the link between alcohol use (frequency and quantity) and sexual victimization. The current findings are among the first to evaluate sexual objectification as a mechanism in the link between alcohol use and sexual victimization. Results suggest that efforts to prevent alcohol-related sexual violence may benefit from addressing sexual objectification.

Official crime statistics and self-reports of sexual aggression perpetration are limited by various factors (e.g., lack of reporting, social desirability bias), as well as an inability to use these measures in experimental studies of sexual aggression. To address these issues, Nagayama Hall et al. (1994) developed a laboratory analog measure of sexual aggression, which has received empirical support as a valid measure of sexual aggression proclivity. Here, we seek to replicate these findings and further validate the paradigm by examining sexually aggressive responses in relation to a range of recently emerging predictors of sexual aggression (e.g., sexual objectification, sexual narcissism) as well as participants’ perceptions of a female confederate serving as the target of sexual aggression. A sample of 49 undergraduate men completed questionnaires and participated in the sexual aggression analog task. Results of logistic regression analyses supported both criterion and construct validity of the analog task; men who chose the sexually explicit video were more likely to report prior sexual aggression, greater sexual objectification of women, higher sexual narcissism, greater hostile sexism, and higher impersonal dating. These men were also more likely to express dehumanizing beliefs about the female confederate, consider her less intelligent, and believe she was more distressed by the video. These results replicate and extend prior research supporting this paradigm as a valid laboratory-based measure of sexual aggression proclivity that can be used in tandem with validated self-report measures.