Readiness to Help: How Students\u27 Sexual Assault Awareness, Responsibility, and Action Correlate with Bystander Intervention Behavior

The transtheoretical model of change postulates that behavioral adoption is a result of individuals\u27 readiness to change. Applied to prosocial bystander behavior, having greater sexual assault awareness, prevention responsibility, and action can explain students\u27 readiness to intervene as bystanders. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between students\u27 readiness to help (RTH) and their reported prosocial bystander behavior in five sexual assault risk situations. Data were collected from undergraduate students at a northeastern university (n = 9358) in 2014. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that women\u27s mean scores for RTH subscales of awareness, taking responsibility, and action were significantly greater than men\u27s scores. ANOVA also revealed significant differences between students who did and did not intervene in risk situations, such that those with past prosocial bystander intervention behavior reported significantly greater RTH compared with those who did not intervene. The extent to which RTH variables correlated with past prosocial bystander intervention behavior differed between men and women, as well as across the risk situations. The use of an evidence-based health behavior theory is beneficial for examining correlates of prosocial intervention and it highlights gender differences therein, as well as how readiness relates to bystander intervention behavior differently, depending on the risk situation. Implications for health promotion messaging and prevention initiatives, as well as future research, will be discussed