Work

Sovereignty for your body: Acceptability of sexual victimization risk reduction interventions among Indigenous college students.

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: ObjectiveThe goal of this study is to understand what type of sexual violence risk reductionintervention programs and elements are acceptable to Indigenous college students viaquantitative survey research methods.Method401 Indigenous college students (77.1% women, 19.7% men, 3.0% trans or Two Spirit)from across North America were recruited. Students read standardized descriptions offour different sexual victimization risk reduction interventions (SVRRIs) that ranged incharacteristics and ranked the interventions. All students provided acceptability ratingsfor Flip the Script with Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) and a program oftheir choice. Participants also rated the importance of specific intervention elements,including cultural content.ResultsMost participants had a history of sexual victimization; 80.8% had been sexuallyvictimized at some point in their life. The combined sexual violence and substance usereduction intervention (Sexual Assault Risk and Alcohol Use Reduction Program[SAARR]) was most frequently ranked as the first choice by 36.2% of the sample, p <0.1. Considering acceptability ratings, all four SVRRIs were considered acceptable bymost of the sample, with Flip the Script with EAAA rated highest of acceptability at95.3% and Bringing in the Bystander having the lowest rate of acceptability at 71.4%.Cultural content was rated as a moderately important intervention element.ConclusionsIndigenous college students are open to many different forms of sexual violence riskreduction interventions. Our findings suggest that simple cultural adaptations would bewelcomed and scientifically supported to increase access and acceptability to violenceinterventions for Indigenous college students.

Source: Psychology of Violence

DOI: 10.1037/vio0000519