Award Date

5-1-2013

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing (ND)

Department

Nursing

First Committee Member

Nancy Menzel

Second Committee Member

Susan Van Buege

Third Committee Member

William Sousa

Number of Pages

71

Abstract

Between 17% and 62% of college students experience some form of violence during their time at school. About 25% of female college students experience a sexual assault before graduating. One university had seen an increase in violence, including assaults and bias events. Administrators and nurses implemented a bystander awareness program to help alleviate this growing problem. Members of the college's residence life staff and its Greek organizations (fraternities and sororities) participated in the Step Up program, a prosocial training program to get people to intervene safely when witnessing acts of violence. Participants (N=236) completed surveys prior to the program, immediately after the program (N=197), and 60 days after the program concluded (N=27). Data were analyzed to determine success of the program and retention of the principles of the program. Immediately after the training, participants had a statistically significant increase in knowledge about ways to report witnessed violence. However, 60 days after the program, a greater proportion of participants reported being victimized personally by acts of violence in the previous two months than the proportion who had reported this before the program. Inference is limited because only 12% of those who took the pre-test completed the post-test. At the same time, a larger proportion reported witnessing fewer violent acts than the proportion reporting this before. Participants reported they were more likely to respond to acts of violence immediately after completing the program and again at 60 days after the program. Acts of violence decreased on campus in the four months after the program compared to the same period the year before. By providing a subset of students with the tools to identify and prevent violence, administrators and nurses may have contributed to decreasing incidents of violence on campus.

Keywords

Bystander effect; Bystander intervention; Campus violence; College students – Crimes against; Universities and colleges; University; Violence – Prevention

Disciplines

Criminology and Criminal Justice | Nursing | Public Health

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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