College Men View Existing Sex Education and Sexual Assault Prevention Trainings to be Ineffective and Lack Institutional Trust, New Report Shows

 New report from It’s On Us surveyed more than 1,150 college men and shows how higher education institutions can engage men on campus as part of the solution to preventing campus sexual assault

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, on the organization’s ninth anniversary, It’s On Us released Engaging Men Part 2: Measuring Attitudes and Behaviors, a quantitative study focused on college men’s attitudes about campus sexual assault, institutional trust, healthy relationships, and how to most effectively engage and empower college men in campus sexual assault prevention. 

Building on It’s On Us’s previous qualitative research on how male-identifying students feel about existing prevention training and how likely they are to get involved in preventing sexual assault on campus, Part 2 surveyed more than 1,150 college men to collect a wider breadth of opinions and take a deeper dive into the values and attitudes expressed in Part 1.

“Sexual assault topped respondents’ list of safety concerns on campus, and as our previous research has shown, college men want to be empowered to help prevent campus sexual assault, but they do not know how,” said Tracey Vitchers, Executive Director of It’s On Us. “This report takes It’s On Us’s research further, quantitatively measuring how college men feel about sex education, whether they trust their institutions’ responses to sexual assault, and what they are thinking about their roles in campus sexual assault prevention. With this data, we are able to more effectively connect with, train and empower young men on campus as part of the solution, rather than the problem, and call upon higher education institutions and policymakers to step up to do the same.”     

Key findings in this report center on the following themes: 

• Consent: Even when men receive consent training, it is not effective and does not prepare them to identify and intervene in potentially harmful situations or unhealthy relationships.
• Awareness: The information young men are taught about sex and relationships varies, highlighting the need for schools to start at the basics with comprehensive and inclusive sexual health education for all students. 
• Trust in Institutions: Campus faculty, staff, and administrators have work to do to build and maintain trust with their student populations about their responses to campus sexual assault prevention. 
• Desire to Learn: A majority of men believe they should be expected to protect others from verbal or physical harm, but very few have the knowledge and skills to do so.

Engaging Men (Part 2) includes recommendations for students, campus administration, and policymakers, including: 

• Students must hold themselves and their schools accountable by asking their schools to invest in comprehensive and inclusive sex education, prevention education that includes information on healthy relationship behaviors, and bystander training programs. 
• Campus administration must build and maintain trust with their student populations by meeting students where they are at, communicating clearly, investing in effective prevention training and implementing bystander intervention in required trainings. 
• Policymakers must create a uniform definition of consent and require comprehensive and inclusive sex education curricula, as well as invest in additional qualitative research on institutional trust to hold institutions of higher education accountable. 

The full Engaging Men Part 2 report can be found HERE. It’s On Us worked with data collection firm YouGov to facilitate a 12-minute survey with more than 1,150 college men across the United States, using the findings from Part 1 to inform the survey design. 

It’s On Us is thankful to the authors of this report, Silvia Zenteno and Emily Hilty, as well as anyone else involved in the process. This report is part of It’s On Us’s ongoing research to engage college men in campus sexual assault prevention and will help develop prevention trainings and further research. 

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