A Web-based Bystander Education Program (RealConsent)

Emory University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Sexual Violence

Treatments: Behavioral: Bystander & Sexual Violence Prevention; Behavioral: General Health Promotion

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT01903876

R49CE000892 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

IRB00000472

EmoryVAW (Other Identifier)

Details and patient eligibility

About

This is a study to determine whether a theoretically-driven web-based 3-hour intervention designed for male college students called RealConsent is effective in increasing prosocial intervening behaviors and in preventing sexual violence perpetration. Sexual violence programs for this population have been implemented for decades in the United States, but a program that is web-based and incorporates the bystander education model has never been implemented or tested. In this study, male college students will be recruited online, enrolled and randomly assigned to RealConsent or to a comparison condition. Prior to the intervention, investigators will ask questions about their intervening and sexually coercive behaviors and other theoretical and empirical factors related to the study outcomes. Investigators will survey the young men again at post-intervention, and at 6-months follow-up to determine whether young men in the RealConsent program intervened more often and engaged in less sexual violence compared to young men in the comparison condition. The main hypotheses are: (1) college men in the RealConsent program will report more instances of prosocial intervening; and (2) college men in the RealConsent program will report less sexual violence against women.

Enrollment: 743 patients

Sex: Male

Ages: 18 to 24 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Student matriculated at Georgia State University
• Male
• 18 to 24
• Undergraduate
• Self-identify as heterosexual or bisexual

Exclusion criteria

• Graduate student
• Self-identify as homosexual

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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743 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group

General Health promotion

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

A 3-hour general mental health web-based program.

Treatment:

Behavioral: General Health Promotion

Bystander & Sexual Violence Prevention

Experimental group

Description:

A 3-hour web-based program designed to teach male college student bystanders to intervene.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Bystander & Sexual Violence Prevention