Bystander Prevention of Sexual and Dating Violence: An Experimental Evaluation of Online and In-Person Bystander Intervention Programs

Rates of sexual violence (SV) and dating violence (DV) are high on college campuses; federal law mandates colleges provide SV/DV prevention programming to incoming students. Programs showing the strongest empirical support are bystander programs; however, their small group format makes it impractical to use them with large student bodies. In a pilot feasibility study, we compared in-person and e-intervention SV/DV bystander intervention programs and randomly assigned 562 students to one of the programs. Students completed measures of knowledge and attitudes at 3 points over 6 months. Both groups changed significantly in the expected direction on all measures, with no differences between groups in change over time. Results suggest that e-interventions may be a viable alternative to in-person SV/DV programs for meeting federal mandates.