Community Norms Affect Youths’ Likelihood of Intervening in Sexual/Dating Violence.
Dating and sexual violence bystander intervention programs are becoming popular, but there is little information about what facilitates or inhibits bystanders taking action. A new study led by a School of Public Health researcher shows the importance of community norms in youths’ bystander behavior.
The study, published in the American Journal of Community Psychology, found that high-school students were more likely to take action if they viewed their community as cohesive and adults in their community as against perpetration and supportive of survivors and of prevention efforts.
“This study tells us that working on community norms is worth it,” says lead author Emily Rothman, professor of community health sciences. “Communities can function in ways that support people to help survivors of sexual and dating violence, intervene with perpetrators, and go out and prevent sexual and dating violence.”
The researchers conducted a survey of 2,172 students from four high schools in small to mid-sized towns in one New England state. The participants responded to questions about their perceptions of the norms among people in their communities, and how likely people would be to engage in various prevention and support behaviors related to dating and sexual violence.
For example, they were asked how likely they thought it would be for the adults around them to support victims of dating and sexual violence, or to try to prevent dating and sexual violence by teaching young people about healthy relationships. To what degree did they think their communities would be able to come together to prevent domestic violence and sexual assault? How close-knit did they think their communities were? How much did they think people in their communities supported local organizations and events or engaged in activities designed to prevent dating and sexual violence? To what degree did they think people in their towns believed that a person should intervene in or prevent sexual and dating violence, or support victims?
The surveys also asked the high school students how likely they would be to intervene in, or take steps to prevent, sexual and dating violence, or support victims, and how many times they had taken these actions in the past.
The researchers found that the students were more likely to take action, or to have taken action, when they believed that their communities were close-knit and able to come together to prevent sexual and dating violence, when they believed that the adults around them were likely to take action, and when they believed that people in their communities thought bystanders should take action.
The study was co-authored by Katie Edwards, Andrew Rizzo, and Victoria Banyard of the University of New Hampshire, and Megan Kearns of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.