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Sexual Assault Education Programs: A Meta-Analytic Examination of Their Effectiveness

NCJ Number
306505
Journal
Psychology of Women Quarterly Volume: 29 Issue: 4 Dated: 2005 Pages: 374-388
Author(s)
Linda A. Anderson; Susan C. Whiston
Date Published
2005
Length
15 pages
Annotation

The authors of document discuss implications for research and practice regarding the effectiveness of college and sexual assault program, based on an examination of research studies examining 102 treatment interventions.

Abstract

Meta-analyses of the effectiveness of college sexual assault education programs on seven outcome measure categories were conducted using 69 studies that involved 102 treatment interventions and 18,172 participants. Five of the outcome categories had significant average effect sizes (i.e., rape attitudes, rape-related attitudes, rape knowledge, behavioral intent, and incidence of sexual assault), while the outcome areas of rape empathy and rape awareness behaviors did not have average effect sizes that differed from zero. A significant finding of this study is that longer interventions are more effective than brief interventions in altering both rape attitudes and rape-related attitudes. Moderator analyses also suggest that the content of programming, type of presenter, gender of the audience, and type of audience may also be associated with greater program effectiveness. Implications for research and practice are discussed.