An Experimental Evaluation of Peer versus Professional Educators of a Bystander Program for the Prevention of Sexual and Dating Violence among College Students

Abstract

Some argue that bystander intervention programs for sexual violence (SV) and dating violence (DV) prevention should be facilitated by peer educators. However, there is no evidence that peer educators are more effective than professionals at delivering program material. This study experimentally evaluated a bystander prevention program; half of participants were assigned to peer educators and half to professionals. Multilevel modeling showed that peer educators had a significantly better effect at reducing some SV- and DV-supportive attitudes and at increasing bystander efficacy. There were no differences in educators’ effectiveness at reducing other SV- and DV-related attitudes or at increasing bystander behaviors.