Preventing sexual violence in college men: a randomized-controlled trial of GlobalConsent

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Kathryn Yount, Emory University; Hung Minh Tran, Center for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population; Thu Trang Quach, Center for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population; Yuk Cheong, Emory University; Irina Bergenfeld, Emory University; Jessica Sales, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2020-09-01
• Publisher: BMC
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © The Author(s) 2020.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09454-2
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: BMC Public Health
• Volume: 20
• Issue: 1
• Start Page: 1331
• End Page: 1331
• Grant/Funding Information: This research is supported by a grant from an anonymous charitable foundation (Principal Investigator Yount). The sponsor had no role in the study design; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing of the study protocol; nor the decision to submit the protocol for publication.
• Keywords: Public, Environmental & Occupational Health; Bystander behavior; Intimate partner violence; Monte Carlo; Vietnam; Bystander self-efficacy; Social norms theory; Social cognitive theory; Sexual violence; Domestic violence; Campus sexual assault; Behavioral change communication; Rape; Women; Formative research; Science & Technology; Educational entertainment (edutainment); Sample-size; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Premarital sex; Gender-based violence
• Research Categories: Psychology, Cognitive; Education, Health; Health Sciences, Public Health

Abstract

Background Sexual violence—any sexual act committed against a person without freely given consent—disproportionately affects women. Women’s first experiences of sexual violence often occur in adolescence. In Asia and the Pacific, 14% of sexually experienced adolescent girls report forced sexual debut. Early prevention with men that integrates a bystander framework is one way to address attitudes and behavior while reducing potential resistance to participation. Methods This paper describes a study protocol to adapt RealConsent for use in Vietnam and to test the impact of the adapted program—GlobalConsent—on cognitive/attitudinal/affective mediators, and in turn, on sexual violence perpetration and prosocial bystander behavior. RealConsent is a six-session, web-based educational entertainment program designed to prevent sexual violence perpetration and to enhance prosocial bystander behavior in young men. The program has reduced the incidence of sexual violence among men attending an urban, public university in the Southeastern United States. We used formative qualitative research and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Map of the Adaptation Process to adapt RealConsent. We conducted semi-structured interviews with college men (n = 12) and women (n = 9) to understand the social context of sexual violence. We conducted focus group discussions with university men and stakeholders (n = 14) to elicit feedback on the original program. From these data, we created scripts in storyboard format of the adapted program. We worked closely with a small group of university men to elicit feedback on the storyboards and to refine them for acceptability and production. We are testing the final program—GlobalConsent—in a randomized controlled trial in heterosexual or bisexual freshmen men 18–24 years attending two universities in Hanoi. We are testing the impact of GlobalConsent (n = 400 planned), relative to a health-education attention control condition we developed (n = 400 planned), on cognitive/attitudinal/affective mediators, prosocial bystander behavior, and sexual violence perpetration. Discussion This project is the first to test the impact of an adapted, theoretically grounded, web-based educational entertainment program to prevent sexual violence perpetration and to promote prosocial bystander behavior among young men in a middle-income country. If effective, GlobalConsent will have exceptional potential to prevent men’s sexual violence against women globally. Trial registration U.S. National Library of Medicine Clinicaltrials.govNCT04147455 on November 1, 2019 (Version 1). Retrospectively registered. Protocol amendments will be submitted to clinicaltrials.gov.