effects of two acquaintance rape prevention education programs on rape-supportive beliefs among college students

This study examined the effectiveness of two rape prevention programs on rape-supportive beliefs among college students. The participants were divided into three groups. One group participated in a didactic rape prevention program involving primarily lecture and video instruction. The second group participated in an experiential rape prevention program utilizing improvisational theater. The third group was the control group. The 55 participants completed two attitude scales developed by Burt (1980): Adversarial Sexual Beliefs (ASB) and Rape Myth Acceptance (RMA). They then participated in their workshop and took the attitude scales again as a post-treatment test. Two weeks later, the participants took a follow-up post-treatment test using the same attitude scales. Results indicated there were no significant differences in effectiveness between the interventions in reducing rape-supportive beliefs. However, the didactic program produced a significant reduction in rape-supportive beliefs compared to the control group as measured by the RMA scale. Participants who had been victims of sexual assault scored significantly lower than non-victims in the ASB and RMA across all groups. It was also found that participants who had any previous experience with sexual assault, such as familiarity with a victim or an offender, scored significantly lower in rape-supportive beliefs after participating in the didactic program than participants who had no previous experience with sexual assault. Based on these findings, didactic programs appear to be the most effective format for reducing rape-supportive beliefs among college students.