Summary: The purpose of the study was to gather data on attitudes and beliefs of college-aged men to inform a web-based sexual violence prevention program. A sample of 48 undergraduate male students from a large, public southeastern university participated in 8 focus groups. Topics discussed included how participants obtain consent for sex, their ideas on the relationship between alcohol and sex, how comfortable participants felt in intervening as bystanders, and techniques for bystander interventions, as identified by the men. The variety of positive and negative themes demonstrated that college-age men hold diverse perspectives about sexual violence prevention. The authors recommended that both positive and negative themes from the focus groups be utilized to improve web-based programs.
Application/Evaluation: The study did not evaluate the effectiveness of a health program or strategy.
Limitations: The study used a sample of male, undergraduate college students, ages 18-24, who self-identified as heterosexual.