TY - JOUR PY - 2022// TI - Describing youth as actionists for peer sexual violence prevention: correlates of opportunity to act JO - Journal of gender-based violence A1 - Banyard, Victoria A1 - Edwards, Katie A1 - Mitchell, Kimberly J. A1 - Greenberg, Patricia A1 - Jones, Lisa SP - 61 EP - 78 VL - 6 IS - 1 N2 - OBJECTIVE: An emerging prevention strategy to reduce peer sexual violence among adolescents is bystander training (that is, actionism). The situational-cognitive model of actionism describes key variables that may promote action, the first of which is detecting the opportunity to help. The purpose of this study was to examine this first stage of action to better understand youth who report opportunity to respond to situations of sexual violence.

METHOD: The current cross-sectional study examined a measure of youth bystander opportunity in a baseline sample of youth in school grades 7-10 in the Great Plains region of the US (N=2,225). Students indicated whether they witnessed four situations related to risk of peer sexual violence.

RESULTS: Opportunities for actionism varied based on the type of situation. Opportunities to intervene were most common for situations involving unwanted touching and sexual rumours. Older youth, girls and youth with self-reported risk factors such as alcohol use and internalising symptoms were more likely to report opportunities for actionism.

DISCUSSION: Further study of bystander opportunity and correlates of bystander opportunity could help better tailor prevention approaches to provide practice in strategies that are based on the range of opportunities which particular groups of youth may be most likely to encounter.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 2398-6808 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/239868021X16231534981819 ID - ref1 ER -