Examining Demographic and Environmental Variables As Predictors for Bystander Intervention Among a Diverse College Student Population

Background and Purpose:

In an effort to prevent sexual violence, many college campuses have developed bystander intervention programs. Previous evaluations of bystander interventions have primarily focused on demographic variables and the willingness to intervene (Banyard, 2011; Banyard, Plante, & Moynihan, 2004). These evaluations have also been conducted with primarily White college student populations (Brown, Banyard, & Moynihan, 2014). This study examined the predictability of both demographic and environmental variables for bystander readiness and the majority of participants identified as Latino.  This current study sought to build on previous research by examining bystander readiness levels in relation to demographic and environmental variables with a diverse student population.

Methods:

This study engaged a survey design, which involved the collection of information about college student campus climate experiences. The survey was adapted from the Rutgers Center on Violence Against Women and Children Campus Climate Survey published in relationship with the U.S. White House Not Alone Report (April, 2014). This project used a stratified random sample of college students from a large, Southwestern university in the United States, with 964 student respondents. The survey respondents generally were representative of the university student population; in alignment with student demographics, the respondents identified as Latino (44.6%), White (35%), Black (8.6%), and Asian (8.7%); 23.8% of the respondents identified as multi-racial.

Results:

We conducted ANOVAs, comparison of means, and multiple regressions. Highlights from these results include discovering that there was a relationship between the race/ethnicity of a respondent and higher bystander readiness levels F (4) = 2.91, p = .05, Eta .11, with Black women having the highest levels of readiness (M = 2.89, SD = .56). We found that college of major was significantly related to bystander readiness levels F (11) = 5.57, p = .001, Eta .27, with men majoring in Education/Human Development (M = 2.94, SD = .58) having the highest levels of bystander readiness. Results also revealed that having experienced sexual harassment was significantly related to bystander readiness levels F (4) = 11.61, p = .001, Eta .21, with women (M = 2.94, SD = .55) reporting the highest levels of readiness. The multiple regression analysis illustrated that for women, the single most significant predictor for bystander readiness was experiences with sexual harassment (β = .23, p = .001) and for men the most significant predictor was being a student within the college of liberal and fine arts (β = .39, p= .01).

Implications:

Given that women that have experienced sexual harassment are most likely to have high bystander readiness scores, bystander intervention researchers should examine how having experienced sexual harassment inspires readiness to intervene and how that inspiration can be transferred to students that have not experienced sexual harassment. Practitioners should consider developing and evaluating bystander programming targeting students studying business, engineering, and natural sciences. University policy should support practitioner efforts to engage in college-specific programming about the relationship between sexual harassment and campus safety.