Undressing Consent –Preliminary Evaluation of a Campus Sexual Violence Prevention Program
Abstract
The current study is a preliminary evaluation of the impact of the Undressing Consent post-secondary sexual violence prevention program on student attitudes and beliefs related to consent, understanding of desires and boundaries, societal gendered sexual scripts, and responding to rejection. A primary goal of the study was to create a reliable measure to be used for future evaluation of changes in student attitudes and beliefs related to core program content. In addition, we evaluated student responses to our newly created scales before and after participation in the intervention and between gendered groups. A total sample of 570 students (women and non-binary students pre-intervention, n =208; post-intervention n = 167) participated. Analysis of newly designed scales showed promising results, with the Sexual Scripts scale having good model fit and reliability for the WNB group. An integrated scale including the Sexual Scripts and Response to Rejection scales for men's data also demonstrated good model fit and adequate reliability. However, scale improvement is required for the measurement of the constructs of Consent and Desires & Boundaries. A small but significant change in beliefs was observed among women and non-binary students but such changes were not observed for men. In scale creation, we experienced issues with restricted range for change, independent and unequal gendered sample sizes, and attrition which limit our ability to make inferences regarding program effectivity. Further work on measurement is required to capture student attitudes and behaviours in preparation for a repeated measures randomized control trial of program efficacy.