Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["Langford, Linda" <>]

Hi Laura and list,

 

We have a 4-page piece on Student Leadership that you might find helpful, available online: http://higheredcenter.ed.gov/files/product/student-leadership.pdf. It addresses student involvement in both violence prevention and in alcohol and other drug prevention (AOD) programs and describes briefly describes four campus programs  (two on each topic.) The introduction discusses some general principles and considerations for involving peers based on research and interviews with campus professionals.

 

One of the papers that really rocked my world about this topic was Turner and Shepherd, “A method in search of a theory: peer education and health promotion.” (full text here: http://her.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/14/2/235) It doesn’t address sexual violence programs (but rather HIV), and it’s not up to date (it came out in 1999). But I think their overall approach is genius. The authors first listed 10 rationales given for peer education, and then they reviewed the extent to which health promotion theories and research evidence support these rationales. While the research is now outdated, the general analysis is not, and I still find it helps me to think in a more nuanced way about how and why we’re engaging peers. I really like their conceptualization of peer education as a method (rather than a program), and it helped me to realize that we can’t decide whether peers are the best method without also thinking through the program’s goals, audience, and content, as well as the specific role of the peers. Of course, there are other contextual factors that might influence the use of peers, for example, some campuses have a strong culture of peer leadership, while others don’t, some campuses have had a recent high-profile incident, which might make audiences more or less challenging, etc. Turner and Shepherd also highlighted for me the importance of articulating the rationale for engaging peers and making sure it’s research-based. For example, I’d design a peer program differently if my focus was on selecting peers to be engaging and skilled facilitators during an hour-long presentation vs. recruiting high-status individuals to serve as everyday popular opinion leaders in their peer groups. And in either case, I’d look for research or theory supporting that approach given my program’s goals.

 

For what it’s worth: the 2005 Anderson and Whiston meta-analysis of sexual assault programs (see reference below) compared professional versus peer educators and found that professional presenters were more effective than peers in the studies they examined.  Quote from pg. 382: "This study also found that the status of the facilitator appears to influence changes in rape-related attitudes and behavioral intentions.  Professional presenters were more successful, while graduate students and peer presenters were generally less successful in promoting positive changes."  I don’t dismiss this conclusion, but I take it with a grain of salt. First, they compared only the two types of presenters and didn’t factor in any of the considerations mentioned above, e.g., what were the audience and goals, was the content of the program appropriate, what exactly was the peers’ role, was there a reason to think peers would be better messengers for that content, was the delivery engaging, etc? Second, I believe that most if not all of the programs they studied were the “old-school” sexual assault awareness programs, so those findings may not apply to more recently developed bystander intervention programs.

 

My takeaway is that there’s no right or wrong answer to the peers vs. not peers choice, but rather it’s important to ground the decision in the broader context of the overall program and goals. I also think it’s critical to have sufficient resources to recruit, select, train, and support peers to successfully fulfill their intended role(s). (Or, if resources are lacking, to redesign the roles to ones that require less intensive training and supervision). Thanks to those of you who have shared examples – I appreciate you including a few sentences of background about the program and how the peers are trained and supported, in addition to the specific role(s) they play in the program. I think in order to really understand what “peer education models” are being used (the original question), we need that context. Thanks for this great question, Laura.

 

Best Regards,

Linda Langford

 

Ref: Anderson, Linda A. and Whiston, Susan C. Sexual Assault Education Programs: a Meta-Analytic Examination of Their Effectiveness. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 29 (2005), 374–388.

 

Linda Langford, Sc.D.

Associate Center Director, Violence Prevention Initiatives

U.S. Department of Education's Higher Education Center for Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Violence Prevention

http://HigherEdCenter.ed.gov

43 Foundry Avenue, Waltham, MA 02453-8313

voice (800) 676-1730 x2719 OR (617) 618-2719 (direct line)

fax (617) 928-1537

 

 EDCInc 

From: Laura Palumbo []
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2012 3:22 PM
To:
Subject: Peer education models, curricula, resources

 

Hello-

 

I wanted to tap into the great minds of the listserv to hear recommendations on peer education models for sexual violence prevention. We know there is a lot out there, but it would be great to hear about specific programs or curricula that you’ve seen as effective and hear a few thoughts on why.

 

Have a great afternoon!

 

Thanks,

 

Laura Palumbo

Prevention Campaign Specialist

 

National Sexual Violence Resource Center

123 North Enola Drive, Enola, PA  17025

717.909.0710 x128

877.739.3895 Toll Free

http://www.nsvrc.org

 

See you at the National Sexual Assault Conference.

To join us Aug. 22-24 in Chicago, visit www.nsvrc.org/nsac