Effects of The Men's Program on U.S. Army Soldiers' Intentions to Commit and Willingness to Intervene to Prevent Rape: A Pretest Posttest Study

Noncommissioned male officers in the U.S. Army stationed in Germany were trained to present a 1-hour rape prevention workshop—The Men's Program—to 237 enlisted male soldiers. A comparison group of 244 male soldiers received a briefing focused on reducing the individual's risk for experiencing sexual assault, discussion of myths and facts about sexual assault, and how to avoid being accused of sexual assault. Participants in The Men's Program experienced significant change in the predicted direction for bystander willingness to help, bystander efficacy, rape myth acceptance, likelihood of raping, and likelihood of committing sexual assault with low to medium effect sizes. Comparison group participants experienced no effect on these variables except for a significant decline in rape myth acceptance with a very low effect. Between-group differences pointed to the efficacy of The Men's Program. Implications of these results for rape prevention programming in the military are discussed.