Preventing Teen Relationship Abuse and Sexual Assault through Bystander Training: Intervention Outcomes for School Personnel

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to examine the impact of exposure to Bringing in the Bystander—High School Curriculum (BITB‐HSC) on school personnel, which included a seven session classroom curriculum for ninth through twelfth graders (student curriculum), a bystander training workshop for school personnel (school personnel workshop), and reading materials (handout). We examined how exposure to these various BITB‐HSC intervention components was associated with school personnel's knowledge and bystander efficacy, intentions, and barriers specific to student relationship abuse (RA) and sexual assault (SA). Participants were 488 school personnel from 12 high schools in upper New England who completed the 4‐month follow‐up survey that assessed for intervention exposure (284 participants completed both the baseline and follow‐up survey). Whereas 53% of participants were exposed to no intervention components, the other half of the sample were exposed to a combination of intervention components. Higher baseline knowledge and reactive bystander intentions were associated with subsequent exposure to both the student curriculum and the handout, and fewer barriers to bystander action predicted exposure to the school personnel workshop. Exposure to the school personnel workshop, student curriculum, and handout was associated with subsequent greater knowledge, exposure to the student curriculum predicted reactive bystander intentions, and exposure to the handout predicted higher reactive bystander intentions and bystander efficacy. Findings suggest that despite challenges with engagement, exposure to the BITB‐HSC components may be a useful tool in improving school personnel's responses to RA and SA among high school students.

Feasibility and Acceptability of a High School Relationship Abuse and Sexual Assault Bystander Prevention Program: School Personnel and Student Perspectives

“…School personnel were also generally positive about the BITB-HSC, including the student curriculum, which outcome evaluation data suggest was effective in leading to positive changes among school personnel (Edwards, Sessarego, Mitchell, Chang, & Banyard, forthcoming). Given that teachers and school personnel are the individuals who often chose which prevention curricula are implemented in schools, understanding program acceptability is important.…”

Parents Matter: A Descriptive Study of Parental Discussions With Teens About Violence Prevention and Related Topics

“…The effects of these educational strategies are enhanced when they are of higher quality (Fagan & Catalano, 2013; Nation et al, 2003), including the engagement of parents and caregivers (Randolph et al, 2009). Indeed, some violence-prevention programs have directly engaged parents, caregivers, and teachers in programming to enhance the effectiveness of programming efforts on youth outcomes (Edwards et al, 2018; Fosco et al, 2013; Foshee et al, 2012; Stormshak et al, 2010). To date, however, there is a paucity of research examining the extent to which parents and caregivers engage in conversations with their youth about violence-prevention topics (e.g., sexual assault and harassment, dating violence, bullying) outside of the context of formalized programming.…”

Formative research to develop an app to prevent dating and sexual violence and alcohol use among high school youth

“…Further, there are increasing calls to use bystander intervention skills training to engage youth and young adults in responding to high-risk drinking situations (Arminio et al, 2017;Schipani-McLaughlin et al, 2021). What is more, there are increasing calls from community psychologists and prevention scientists to include parents/guardians and school personnel in the prevention of DSV among high school youth as these individuals can reinforce prevention messages and skills to enhance programming impact (Doucette et al, 2021;Edwards et al, 2020Edwards et al, , 2022Newton et al, 2017).…”