The Journal of Sex Research ISSN: 0022-4499 (Print) 1559-8519 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hjsr20 Bystander Attitudes to Prevent Sexual Assault: A Study of College Students in the United States, Japan, India, Vietnam, and China Akiko Kamimura, Ha Ngoc Trinh, Hanh Nguyen, Niwako Yamawaki, Haimanti Bhattacharya, Wenjing Mo, Ryan Birkholz, Angie Makomenaw & Lenora M Olson To cite this article: Akiko Kamimura, Ha Ngoc Trinh, Hanh Nguyen, Niwako Yamawaki, Haimanti Bhattacharya, Wenjing Mo, Ryan Birkholz, Angie Makomenaw & Lenora M Olson (2016): Bystander Attitudes to Prevent Sexual Assault: A Study of College Students in the United States, Japan, India, Vietnam, and China, The Journal of Sex Research, DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2016.1184605 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2016.1184605 Published online: 07 Jun 2016 Submit your article to this journal Article views: 15 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=hjsr20 Download by: [University of California Santa Barbara] Date: 20 June 2016, At: 05:02 THE JOURNAL OF SEX RESEARCH, 00(00), 1–8, 2016 Copyright © The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality ISSN: 0022-4499 print/1559-8519 online DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2016.1184605 Bystander Attitudes to Prevent Sexual Assault: A Study of College Students in the United States, Japan, India, Vietnam, and China Akiko Kamimura Department of Sociology, University of Utah Ha Ngoc Trinh Department of Sociology, University of Utah; Vietnam National University Downloaded by [University of California Santa Barbara] at 05:02 20 June 2016 Hanh Nguyen Department of Sociology, Vietnam National University in HCMC Niwako Yamawaki Department of Psychology, Brigham Young University Haimanti Bhattacharya Department of Economics, University of Utah Wenjing Mo and Ryan Birkholz Department of Sociology, University of Utah Angie Makomenaw Prevention Education Advocacy Services, University of Northern Colorado Lenora M Olson Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah College women are at a high risk of sexual assault Although programs that aim to change bystander behaviors have been shown to be potentially effective in preventing sexual assault on campuses in the United States, little is known about bystander behaviors outside of the United States The purpose of this study was to explore and compare factors affecting bystander behaviors regarding sexual assault intervention and prevention among undergraduate students in the United States, Japan, India, Vietnam, and China A total of 1,136 students participated in a self-reported survey Results demonstrate substantial variations across countries Bystander behaviors are associated with multilevel factors, including gender, knowledge of individuals who have experienced a sexual assault, and knowledge about campus or community organizations Sexual assault refers to any sexual act that occurs with coercion, without consent, or in circumstances when a victim is unable to give consent It includes completed or attempted sexual acts obtained through physical force, psychological intimidation or manipulation, threats, or incapacitation (such as through intoxication; World Health Organization [WHO], 2002) College women are at a high risk of sexual assault due to several characteristics of campus culture, including first time independence, limited supervision, unstructured time, and availability of alcohol Correspondence should be addressed to Akiko Kamimura, Department of Sociology, University of Utah, 380 S 1530 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 E-mail: akiko.kamimura@utah.edu and drugs (Abbey, 2002; Armstrong, Hamilton, & Sweeney, 2006; Karjane, Fisher, & Cullen, 2005; Marchell & Cummings, 2001) Research on the causes of sexual violence and evaluation of prevention efforts indicates that engaged positive bystanders (also referred to as witnesses or defenders) are a key piece in the prevention of sexual violence (Banyard & Moynihan, 2011) Bystander education is designed to change attitudes of college students about sexual assault by promoting social norms that discourage tolerance of sexual assault or any other violence while training students as potential bystanders who can step in to help diffuse risky situations, identify and challenge perpetrators, and assist victims (Banyard, Eckstein, & Moynihan, 2010; Casey & Lindhorst, 2009; McMahon & Banyard, 2012) In the Downloaded by [University of California Santa Barbara] at 05:02 20 June 2016 KAMIMURA, TRINH, NGUYEN, YAMAWAKI, BHATTACHARYA, MO, BIRKHOLZ, MAKOMENAW, AND OLSON United States, bystander programs are increasingly used as a way to prevent sexual assault on college campuses (Banyard, Moynihan, & Crossman, 2009; Banyard, Moynihan, & Plante, 2007; Banyard, Plante, & Moynihan, 2004; McMahon & Banyard, 2012) The bystander framework is “grounded in research about the causes of sexual assault on campuses and the factors identified by health behavior theories for changing attitudes and behaviors” (Banyard et al., 2009, p 446) The framework posits that more favorable attitudes regarding bystander behaviors will promote more preventive behaviors, which should lead to reduction in sexual assaults Training men and women to understand the role of bystanders in situations where violence against women is occurring may reduce the incidence of violence (Bayard et al., 2004) Bystander training has been shown to positively impact attitudes, including confidence as a bystander, intent to take action, and perceived benefits of action (Banyard et al., 2007) Preventing sexual assault on college-aged women is a vital need The percentage of women aged 16 years or older who reported sexual assault in the previous year in 20 countries located in Africa, Latin America, Asia, or Eastern Europe ranged from 0.3% to 8.0% (WHO, 2002) However, the vast majority of women who are sexually assaulted not report the assault to authorities (WHO, 2002) As a result, these prevalence rates are almost certainly gross underestimates It is difficult to compare the prevalence of sexual assault or other types of violence against female college students across countries due to a lack of standardized data collection regarding sexual assault, the different age groups studied, and the different methods of data collection, from self-reported data collected via surveys to abstracting data from medical records For example, a national survey of college students from the United States found that approximately 20% of female college students are victims of sexual assault (The White House, 2014) A study of alcohol-related harassment among medical college students in Japan found that verbal abuse, physical abuse, and sexual harassment are common: Nearly 90% of students who were surveyed at seven medical colleges reported that they had experienced harassment at drinking parties organized by a student club (NagataKobayashi et al., 2010) There are few studies on college students and violence in India, China, and Vietnam According to a cross-national survey of 16 countries (Straus, 2004), the rate of physical assault by a dating partner at a university in Pune, India, was 41.2% for females, which was the third highest among the 31 universities in the 16 countries in the study Although not college aged, nearly 40% of adolescents in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Taiwan reported experiencing dating violence (Shen, Chiu, & Gao, 2012) A survey-based study conducted in rural Vietnam reported that the prevalence of exposure to physical or sexual intimate partner violence (IPV) was 32.7% for lifetime experience and 9.2% for past-year experience among married women aged 17 to 60 years (Vung, Ostergren, & Krantz, 2008) Bystander programs are widely used in the United States and show promising results for decreasing sexual assault on college campuses (Banyard et al., 2009) They may be useful in other countries as well However, before they can be translated into other cultural contexts, research is needed to evaluate differences in bystander attitudes and behaviors across cultures Little is known about student beliefs and bystander behaviors in college campuses outside of the United States The purpose of this study was to explore and compare attitudes and behaviors related to bystander intervention among undergraduate students in the United States, Japan, India, Vietnam, and China, as these attitudes may influence sexual assault prevention approaches across different countries Our exploratory study was guided by the World Association for Sexual Health Declaration of Sexual Rights, which emphasizes the importance of sexual rights, including bodily integrity, consent, and lack of coercion (World Association for Sexual Health, 2014) These values are part of the bystander prevention model and should be applied to sexual assault intervention and prevention in any country We also examine how bystander attitudes and behaviors are related with each other, because attitudes are often associated with behaviors in general (Bagozzi, 1981) We hypothesize that there will be differences in attitudes and behaviors regarding bystanders among college students in the United States, Japan, India, China and Vietnam In particular, we conjecture that bystander interventions may be perceived differently in individualistic versus collectivistic cultures (Hofstede, 2001; Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005) For example, the United States is an individualistic country; China and Vietnam are collectivistic countries; and Japan and India are in between individualism and collectivism Because it is possible that whether one lives in a collectivistic or individualistic country could affect social attitudes (Boer & Fischer, 2013), bystander attitudes would be influenced differently from country to country In highly collectivist cultures, such as China and Vietnam, tightly cohesive groups (e.g., family, friends, clan) and communities are generally developed, and in such groups or communities collective goals over individual goals are emphasized (Hofstede, 2001; Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005) Thus, it was expected that individuals in a collectivistic country would be more likely to engage in bystander behaviors Method Data Collection and Study Participants The data were collected at six universities in five countries (two universities in Japan and one university each in the United States, India, Vietnam, and China) from the fall Downloaded by [University of California Santa Barbara] at 05:02 20 June 2016 SEXUAL ASSAULT PREVENTION IN THE U.S AND ASIA of 2012 to the spring of 2013 All six universities are public, either state or national, and are located in mid- to large-sized cities The university located in the United States is the flagship research university in the state and has approximately 32,000 students One of the universities in Japan is a comprehensive research institution with approximately 16,500 students, while the other university is also considered a research university but with a smaller enrollment (about 6,000 students) The university in India focuses on teaching and has 90,000 students, including its affiliated colleges The university located in Vietnam is one of the largest research universities in the country with nearly 36,000 students The university in China primarily offers courses in business and engineering and has approximately 13,000 students The university in the United States has an onsite sexual assault prevention program while other universities in this study did not At each university, a consent cover letter and survey instrument were made available to undergraduate students aged 18 to 30 years attending a social science class If a student agreed to participate, he or she submitted the survey during class time The classes were selected based on whether an instructor at that university was able to allow 15 minutes to administer the survey in class (because some classes have very strict content requirements, not all instructors felt that they had the time to administer the survey) The institutional review board (IRB) of the university in the United States approved the study and included a study protocol that followed the guidelines for international research One of the Japanese universities approved the study prior to data collection While the other participating universities did not have formal IRBs, we conducted the survey after receiving permission from the administrative head of the institutions The IRB of the U.S academic institution has detailed guidelines for international research This study protocol followed every step of the guidelines and was approved by the U.S academic institution The survey was administered in English at the universities in the United States and India One of the authors who is originally from India and is familiar with the Indian university in this study determined that the English version is suitable for the college students in India The survey was translated into Japanese, Vietnamese, and Chinese for use at their respective universities by translators, and was backtranslated by other translators into English The study team has one or two native speakers of each of the languages who validated the reconciliation Survey Instrument Readiness-to-Change Scale To measure attitudes toward sexual assault and awareness about sexual assault, we used the Readiness-to-Change Scale (Banyard et al., 2010) This scale measures how ready an individual is to take action if he or she encounters a situation where someone is at risk of sexual assault The Readiness-toChange Scale includes three subscales each with three items, (a) precontemplation subscale; (b) contemplation subscale; and (c) action subscale All items are measured by a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Not at all true; = Very much true) We used the mean of each subscale for the analyses The three items on the precontemplation subscale are as follows: “I don’t think sexual assault is a big problem on campus”; “I don’t think there is much I can about sexual assault on campus”; and “There isn’t much need for me to think about sexual assault on campus; that’s the job of the crisis center.” A higher score on the precontemplation subscale suggests a person is less aware that sexual assault exists Cronbach’s alpha for the precontemplation subscale by country was 0.569 for the United States, 0.623 for Japan, 0.585 for India, 0.545 for China, and 0.630 for Vietnam The two items on the contemplation subscale which were used for the analyses include “I think I can something about sexual assault and am planning to find out what I can about the problem” and “I am planning to learn more about the problem of sexual assault on campus.” One item was eliminated due to low Cronbach’s alpha A higher score on the contemplation subscale implies a person is more aware that sexual assault exists and wants to learn more about sexual assault The r value for the contemplation subscale by country was 0.861 for the United States, 0.743 for Japan, 0.658 for India, 0.565 for China, and 0.875 for Vietnam The action subscale includes three items: “I have recently attended a program about sexual assault”; “I am actively involved in projects to deal with sexual assault on campus”; and “I have recently taken part in activities or volunteered my time on projects focused on ending sexual assault on campus.” A higher score on the action subscale indicates that a person is ready to take more action Cronbach’s alpha for the action subscale by country was 0.815 for the United States, 0.872 for Japan, 0.755 for India, 0.771 for China, and 0.943 for Vietnam Potential Bystander Behaviors Potential bystander behaviors to help people who are at risk of sexual assault were measured by a set of 10 most commonly reported bystander behaviors listed by Banyard (2008) using a 5point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree; = Strongly agree) The statements include “Walk a friend who has had too much to drink home from a party” or “Talk to the friends of a drunk person to make sure they don’t leave their drunk friend behind at a party.” A higher score indicates that a person is more interested in employing bystander behaviors to help people who are at risk of sexual assault Cronbach’s alpha for the bystander behavior scale by country was 0.848 for the United States, 0.725 for Japan, 0.703 for India, 0.744 for China, and 0.809 for Vietnam Knowledge and Help-Seeking Intentions Related to Sexual Assault We developed questions to assess students’ knowledge Following is an example of a question regarding knowledge of organizations on campus or in the community: “Have you heard about any KAMIMURA, TRINH, NGUYEN, YAMAWAKI, BHATTACHARYA, MO, BIRKHOLZ, MAKOMENAW, AND OLSON organizations or programs on campus that work to prevent sexual assault?” To assess whether the participant knew someone who had experienced sexual assault, we asked: “Do you know anyone who has experienced sexual assault?” To examine intent to seek help, we asked: “If you were a victim of sexual assault, to whom would you seek help?” independent variables to evaluate how the Readiness-toChange Scale was associated with the bystander behavior scale Demographic Information Standard demographic questions were used for age, sex, college major, and other demographic variables Table presents demographics of the 1,136 students who participated in the survey The mean age was 20 years The difference in age between the youngest (in Japan, 19.5 years old) and the oldest (in the United States, 20.9 years old) was 18 months Slightly over half of the sample (n = 728, 64.1%) was female, and the percentage of female students in each country was similar to the percentage of female students located in their respective campus Approximately one-third of the students (41%) were freshmen, and onequarter (26.1%) were majoring in economics, followed by sociology (11.7%) Downloaded by [University of California Santa Barbara] at 05:02 20 June 2016 Data Analysis Descriptive statistics, presented as percentages for categorical variables and means with standard deviations (SDs) for continuous variables, were used to describe the distribution of the students’ demographic characteristics We used Pearson chi-square to compare differences in categorical variables by country and an analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare means of bystander behaviors by country The further mean differences on the results of ANOVA were analyzed by post hoc Tukey analysis at the 0.05 significance level Statistical software SPSS (version 19) was used for descriptive statistics and ANOVAs Hierarchical modeling was used to test the impact of individual characteristics on the Readiness-to-Change and bystander behaviors (level = individual; level = country) using proc mixed (SAS version 9.4) The individual factors included age, gender (male = 1, female = 0), knowledge about a campus organization to prevent sexual assault (yes = 1, no = 0), knowledge about a community organization (yes = 1, no = 0), knowledge of someone who experienced sexual assault (yes = 1, no = 0), and won’t seek help for sexual assault (won’t seek help = 1, will seek help = 0) In addition, in the last model, indicators of the Readiness-to-Change Scale were added as Results Participant Demographics Knowledge and Help-Seeking Intent Related to Sexual Assault Table presents the students’ knowledge related to several aspects of sexual assault Overall, more students reported hearing about organizations in the community that work to prevent sexual assault (39.3%) compared to organizations on campus (28.6%) This pattern varied only slightly by country While one-third of all students (34.7%) reported knowing someone who had experienced sexual assault, this percentage was twice as high for students in the United States (67.0%) Most students who knew someone who had experienced sexual assault reported knowing a college friend (24.6%) or other friend (45.9%) who had experienced an assault Combining these two categories resulted in a friend being the person most often known to the student, except for students in Vietnam, where a Table Demographic Characteristics Sociodemographic Variables Age, mean (SD)** Female, n (%) Year in college, n (%) Freshman (1st year) Sophomore (2nd year) Junior (3rd year) Senior (4th year) Major, n (%) Economics Sociology Political Science (Pre-)Law Psychology Undecided Other Total (N = 1,136) United States (N = 206) Japan (N = 215) India (N = 216) Vietnam (N = 238) China (N = 261) 20.0 (1.8) 64.1 20.9 (2.7) 56.3 19.5 (1.6) 52.6 20.1 (1.2) 69.9 19.6 (1.1) 73.9 19.9 (1.6) 65.9 40.9 26.1 20.4 11.9 28.6 15.5 22.8 33.0 63.7 13.0 13.0 10.2 0.4 41.7 49.5 6.0 39.1 28.2 18.9 13.4 67.0 30.7 1.9 26.1 11.7 10.0 7.7 4.8 6.4 27.9 3.4 25.2 7.3 1.0 13.6 9.2 25.7 3.3 14.0 4.2 29.8 5.1 20.0 23.7 52.3 41.7 0.9 0.4 3.2 1.4 10.9 21.0 12.6 8.0 5.9 0.8 40.8 55.2 0.4 0 0.4 0.8 43.3 **p < 0.01 for comparing means by ANOVA test SEXUAL ASSAULT PREVENTION IN THE U.S AND ASIA Table Knowledge and Help-Seeking Intent for Sexual Assault Total (N = 1,136) Downloaded by [University of California Santa Barbara] at 05:02 20 June 2016 Frequency (%) United States (N = 206) Heard about organizations: On campus that work to 325 (28.6) 93 (45.1) prevent sexual assault In the community that 446 (39.3) 119 (57.8) work to prevent sexual assault Know anyone who has experienced sexual assault 394 (34.7) 138 (67.0) 181 (45.9) 89 (64.5) Other friend b 97 (24.6) 37 (26.8) College friend b 82 (20.8) 57 (41.3) Family b 77 (19.5) (6.5) Neighbor b 41 (10.4) 22 (15.9) Myself b If you were a victim of sexual assault, from whom would you seek help? Not seek help 161 (14.2) 11 (5.3) Family 632 (55.6) 126 (61.2) Police 513 (45.1) 114 (55.3) Friend 495 (43.6) 118 (57.3) Hospital/clinic 340 (29.9) 99 (48.1) Attorney 334 (29.4) 64 (31.1) Help center for sexual assault 313 (27.6) 65 (31.6) University resources 167 (14.7) 49 (23.8) Japan (N = 215) India (N = 216) Vietnam (N = 238) China (N = 261) p Value 43 (20.0) 62 (28.7) 111 (46.6) 16 (6.1) < 0.01 38 (17.7) 129 (59.7) 132 (55.5) 28 (10.7) < 0.01 45 (20.9) 29 (64.4) 15 (33.3) (0) (4.4) (8.9) 73 (33.8) 27 (37.0) 24 (32.9) (11.0) 20 (27.4) (12.3) 99 (41.6) 20 (20.2) 13 (13.1) 14 (14.1) 41 (41.4) (4.0) 39 (14.9) 16 (41.0) (20.5) (7.7) (12.8) (5.1) < 0.01 NA NA NA NA NA 80 (37.2) 69 (32.1) 44 (20.5) 82 (38.1) 34 (15.8) 21 (9.8) 28 (13.0) 27 (12.6) 16 (7.4) 114 (52.8) 107 (49.5) 69 (31.9) 42 (19.4) 32 (14.8) 63 (29.1) 21 (9.7) 24 (10.1) 139 (58.4) 113 (47.5) 100 (42.0) 65 (27.3) 92 (38.7) 92 (38.7) 28 (11.8) 30 (11.5) 184 (70.5) 135 (51.7) 126 (48.3) 100 (38.3) 125 (47.9) 65 (24.9) 42 (16.1) < < < < < < < < a 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 a Pearson chi-square comparing by nations Percentages are based on the number of those who knew someone who had experienced sexual assault b neighbor was the person most often reported Students who responded that they themselves had experienced an assault ranged from almost 11% in the United States to less than 1% in China The majority of students reported that they would seek help if they experienced a sexual assault A family member, the police, or a friend were reported as the most common sources from which they would seek help University resources were the least reported and bystander behaviors between countries (p < 0.05) Japanese students were more likely to believe that sexual assault was not a problem on campus compared to all other groups, while Chinese students expressed a stronger interest in learning about sexual assault compared to other groups Japanese students were least likely to take part in a program or projects about sexual assault compared to students in other countries Chinese and U.S students reported more interest in helping a friend at risk of sexual assault than did Japanese, Indian, and Vietnamese students Readiness-to-Change and Bystander Behavior Table presents the Readiness-to-Change and bystander behaviors by country All of the scales of the Readiness-toChange and bystander behaviors were significantly different by country (p < 0.01) Tukey’s significant difference test indicated a significant difference in the Readiness-to-Change Predictors of the Readiness-to-Change and Bystander Behavior Table presents the results of the hierarchical modeling which examined factors associated with Readiness-to-Change Table Readiness-to-Change and Bystander Behavior by Country Mean (SD) Precontemplation** Contemplation** Action** Bystander behavior** Total 2.37 3.18 1.97 3.80 (0.83) (0.91) (0.92) (0.57) United States 2.61 2.83 1.62 4.01 (0.72) (0.92) (0.76) (0.58) Japan 2.98 3.21 1.39 3.60 (0.65) (0.78) (0.57) (0.48) India 2.23 3.28 2.12 3.61 (0.85) (0.91) (0.78) (0.58) Vietnam 2.06 3.40 2.39 3.67 (0.76) (0.71) (1.19) (0.57) China 2.06 3.18 2.22 4.07 (0.73) (1.12) (0.74) (0.47) F a 66.11 12.54 57.98 41.83 Post Hoc Tukey Analysis b Vietnam = China = India < US < Japan US < Vietnam = India = Japan = China Japan < US < India = China < Vietnam Japan = India = Vietnam < US = China Notes Precontemplation: a higher score indicates that sexual assault is not a problem on campus; contemplation: a higher score indicates more interest in learning about sexual assault on campus; action: a higher score indicates recently took part in a program or projects about sexual assault; bystander behavior: a higher score indicates more interest in helping a friend at risk of sexual assault a F statistics for ANOVA test b The equals symbol (=) indicates that there was no significant difference between the countries; The less-than symbol (