Sexual Violence Prevention Programming for Collegiate Athletes: A Behavior Change Approach to Prevention

Sexual violence is a pressing issue on college campuses. Evaluations of prevention programming on college campuses have shown to increase knowledge about sexual assault and increase the use of resources on campus, but current programming has been unsuccessful in reducing violent behavior. Male student-athletes are found to be incorporated in an extensive amount of sexual assault complaints and specialized prevention programming for this population does not exist. An examination of the literature on effective prevention strategies show that dosage, timing and sociocultural relevance has been found necessary for behavior change. Effective prevention techniques are used in accordance with specific frameworks for sexual violence prevention to develop a program curriculum for student-athletes at the University of San Diego. Additionally, the use of campus climate surveys help to uncover addressable areas of concern while developing a data-driven approach to prevention. A comprehensive curriculum for the USD athletic department is informed by student-athlete responses from the 2019 Survey on Sexual Assault. Keywords: sexual violence, prevention programming, student-athletes, colleg