Sexual Assault Prevention: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Military Intervention

Background and Purpose

Despite high rates of sexual assault in the military and over a decade of sexual assault prevention training, no rigorous study has tested this training’s efficacy. This RCT examined the efficacy of the United States Air Force (USAF) sexual assault prevention program (SAPP) compared to that same program with an additional motivational interviewing (MI) component. Pre-post and group comparisons allowed for inferences about the value of the training. Dependent variables included bystanders willingness to intervene, bystander attitudes, and rape myth acceptance.

Methods

 We utilized a matched pair randomized controlled trial. Fifty-one participants were randomly assigned to either the standard condition (n=25) or the standard condition plus motivational interviewing enhanced training (n=26). Participants were college students, many of who were former military. The motivational interviewing intervention consisted of engaging participants in a series of open-ended questions designed to elicit change talk about the value of intervening to prevent or interrupt a sexual assault. Primary outcome measures included the Bystander Efficacy Scale (BES), the Bystander Attitudes Scale Revised (BAS-R), and the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (IRMAS). Participants completed these measures approximately one week prior to the sexual assault prevention training and immediately upon completion of the training. One-way and repeated measures ANOVA were used to examine outcomes.

Results

Participants assigned to the standard condition showed minor improvements in some outcome areas; however, none was statistically significant. Participants assigned to the motivational interviewing enhanced condition showed statistically significant increases in two key measures: willingness to intervene as a bystander and overall increases in prosocial bystander attitudes regarding sexual assault. Effect sizes for the MI enhanced condition were in the small to moderate range, suggesting a 15% to 20% advantage in using MI.

Conclusions and Implications

This study indicates that the standard USAF SAPP program may not be effective in preventing sexual assault. Given the amount of investment in the USAF SAPP program, further research should be conducted to determine what might be done to be more effective. Of interest, the USAF SAPP program has gone through five major changes in the past few decades with little evidence that the changes were guided by research outcomes.  Importantly, our results indicate that the addition of a short motivational interviewing component may hold promise for assisting in the goal of reducing sexual assault in the USAF. The motivational enhanced activity was conducted in small groups and was rather simple: encouraging participants to consider the advantages of acting to prevent a possible sexual assault and the disadvantages of not doing so. This simple intervention led to increased willingness to act in a manner that would deter sexual assaults. Future studies might be conducted with active duty participants on a military installation.