University Of Michigan-Ann Arbor receives $429K Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research grant from the National Institutes of Health

Evaluation of a sexual violence program for youth living on or near a rural indian reservation in the northern great plains - american indian/Alaska native (ai/an) youth experience disproportionately high rates of sexual violence (sv). Sv leads to a host of deleterious outcomes and is costly to society. Prevention of sv among all youth including ai/an youth is critical. Yet, we know little about how to prevent sv among ai/an youth except for several pilot studies evaluating the impact of a prevention program (i.e., impower) on two lakota reservations in South Dakota (sd). Preliminary findings from these pilot studies are promising but additional research is needed on the efficacy of impower using more rigorous methodologies. This application supports analysis and dissemination of data from the first large-scale study of impower, conducted with the support of the oglala sioux tribe on the pine ridge reservation in sd. Impower includes empowerment self-defense (esd) for youth in grades 3-5, as well as middle (ms) and high school (hs) girls. Esd classes include understanding sexual violence; verbal and physical skills to use if someone is trying to force them to do sexual things; and programming components to build positive youth development. Classes for ms boys seek to build skills such as refusal and emotion regulation skills. Hs boys’ classes seek to reduce harmful attitudes and build skills such as bystander intervention. In the current quasi-experimental, mixed-methods study, youth in grades 3 to 12 across treatment and wait-list control schools complete baseline and a survey at four months after the programming ends. We also assess fidelity and administer post-session surveys to assess implementation outcomes. The specific aims include: (1) testing the hypothesis that at the 4-month follow-up, compared to youth in grades 3 to 5 in control schools, youth in grades 3 to 5 in treatment schools will report greater knowledge about sv and empowerment (intermediary outcomes) and lower depression (secondary outcome); (2) testing the hypothesis that at the 4-month follow-up, compared to middle and high school girls in control schools, ms and hs girls in treatment schools will report lower rates of sv victimization (primary outcome). We will also examine changes in secondary (e.g., sexual harassment, alcohol use) and intermediary outcomes (e.g., empowerment, emotion regulation) outcomes; and (3) testing the hypothesis that compared to middle and high school boys in control schools at follow-up, ms and hs boys in treatment schools will report lower rates of sv perpetration (primary outcome). We will also assess changes in secondary (e.g., physical fighting, alcohol use) and intermediary (e.g., healthy attitudes, emotion regulation) outcomes. A final aim is to use post-session and observational data to examine program acceptability, feasibility, and fidelity among students in all grades.