Abstract
Sexual harassment remains a persistent concern on college campuses, despite the widespread implementation of bystander intervention (BI) programs. Grounded in the Reasoned Action Approach (RAA) and value-expectancy theory, this study explored the beliefs that influence students’ intentions to engage in BI to prevent sexual harassment. In Phase 1, salient behavioral, normative, and control beliefs were identified through open-ended responses from a sample of undergraduate students (n = 63) at a Western U.S. university. These themes informed the development of belief-based, value-weighted items aligned with RAA constructs. In Phase 2, a separate sample (n = 196) completed a questionnaire assessing generalized and belief-level RAA constructs. Correlational analyses revealed that feeling proud to help others (r = .44) and educating others by example (r = .42) were the strongest predictors of positive attitudes toward BI. Survivors of sexual harassment (r = .42) were the most influential injunctive referents, and peers of similar age (r = .33) were the strongest descriptive referents. The most significant perceived barrier was lack of peer support (r = .41). These findings suggest that targeting salient prosocial values and referent groups in BI programming may enhance student engagement in efforts to prevent sexual harassment.
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Recommended Citation
Branscum, Paul; Cristall, Ava; and Hackman, Christine
(2025)
"Understanding Motives and Barriers to Bystander Intervention for Preventing Sexual Harassment: A Value-Expectancy Approach,"
Health Behavior Research:
Vol. 8:
No.
4.
https://doi.org/10.4148/2572-2025.8414
