Assessing a bystander intervention program for first-year students at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse

Author / Creator

Worner, Cassandra E

Available as

Physical

Summary

College students face many health challenges, including alcohol misuse, experiences of sexual violence, hate and bias, and poor mental health. Bystander intervention programming is a method for add...

College students face many health challenges, including alcohol misuse, experiences of sexual violence, hate and bias, and poor mental health. Bystander intervention programming is a method for addressing these health concerns by increasing the willingness and ability of students to intervene for their peers. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the bystander intervention program for first-year students by assessing changes in scores of bystander efficacy and bystander intervention behaviors after program participation. Changes in these scores were assessed in the context of several demographic characteristics (i.e. biological sex/gender identity, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, first-generation status, fraternity or sorority membership, sports team membership, international status, and veteran status). Data analysis revealed no statistically significant changes in scores of bystander efficacy and bystander intervention behavior after program implementation and no statistically significant differences between scores for the demographic groups. However, scores of bystander efficacy and bystander intervention behavior were higher after program implementation, and scores for females, LGBTQ+, non-white, non-first-generation students, fraternity and sorority members, sports team members, and international students were higher than their peers for both bystander efficacy and bystander intervention behavior. Results from this study support the implementation of bystander intervention programming for first-year students.

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