Despite extensive efforts to
develop and implement programs to prevent sexual violence, few programs have
empirically-demonstrated efficacy. The primary exceptions are programs that
emphasize risk-reduction skills; yet even these programs are not consistently
effective. This study seeks to add to the literature by evaluating the effects
of My Voice, My Choice (MVMC), a 90-minute assertive resistance training
program that emphasizes skill practice in an immersive virtual environment
(IVE).
We hypothesized that MVMC would reduce male-to-female sexual
victimization among adolescent girls over a 3-month follow-up period. We also
examined whether these results would generalize to other forms of
male-to-female relationship violence and to girls' psychological distress.
Eighty-three female students from an urban public high school were randomized
to MVMC (n=47) or to a wait-list control condition (n=36); 78 provided data
over the 3-month follow-up period.
Participants assigned to MVMC were less
likely than control participants to report sexual victimization during the
follow-up period. Our results also suggest that MVMC reduced risk for
psychological victimization and for psychological distress among participants
with greater prior victimization at baseline.
The promising results of this
pilot trial suggest that MVMC may help girls evade male-to-female relationship
violence.
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By:
- 1Southern Methodist University. Electronic address: lsimpson@smu.edu.
- 2Southern Methodist University.
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