The Promotion of Student’s Efficacy to Prevent Sexual Violence: How

Higher Education Institution Should Respond?

Binahayati Rusyidi, Antik Bintari, and Hery Wibowo

Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Padjadjaran

Keywords: bystander efficacy, role of religiosity, sexual violence prevention, role of higher education institution

Abstract: Sexual violence against women is acknowledged as one of pressing problems across the globe. The presence

of capable bystanders to prevent sexual violence is a necessity. This article is based on a research questioning

whether individual, family and institutional factors associated with student’s efficacy to perform bystander

behavior to prevent sexual violence. Student’s efficacy was measured using Bystander Intention to Help Scale

developed by Banyard et.al. (2005). The research was carried out in late 2016 at 3 universities in West Java

that was classified as public-secular, public-religious affiliated, and private-secular types. Around 950 non-

randomly selected students from various academic disciplines with average age of 19 years participated in the

study. Study found that level of religiosity and university type as significant factors. The higher the level of

religiosity, the more students reported confidence to act as bystander. In addition, students from public

university reported higher level of efficacy to prevent sexual violence than their counterparts from private

university. Findings will be discussed by comparing developing and developed regions contexts, especially

with regards to strategies to prevent sexual violence in campus and university roles to promote pro-social

norms behavior against violence against women.

1 INTRODUCTION

Sexual violence against women is acknowledged as

one of pressing public health issues across the globe.

A report by World Health Organization estimated that

globally 35.6 % women have ever experienced

physical or sexual assault by intimate partner, non-

intimate partner or both. In Indonesia, the National

Survey on Women of 2016 revealed that 1 out of 3

women aged between 15-64 years old years have ever

been physically and or sexually abused by an intimate

partner or non-intimate partner (Ministry of Women

Empowerment and Child Protection and National

Statistic Agency, 2017). Annual reports published by

the Indonesian National Commission on Violence

against Women revealed that sexual violence has

become one among two most common type of

violence against women in Indonesia (National

Commission on Violence Against Women, 2016;

2017).

According to World Health Organization (2013)

sexual violence is “[…] any sexual act, attempt to

obtain a sexual act, or other act directed against a

person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person

regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any

setting” (p.2). Sexual violence exists on a continuum

from sexual harassment to rape and or homicide and

sexual exploitation. Numerous studies revealed such

violence caused serious impacts on victims including

risks of experiencing harmful physical, psychological

and behavioral disorder or distress that can disable

individual and family functioning and well-being

(Miller, Handley, Markman, & Miller, 2010; Chen,

Murad, Paris, Colbenson, Sattler, et al., 2010; World

Health Organization, 2010).

DeKeseredy, Tait, and Alvi (2001) highlighted

that sexual violence occur due to three factors:

perpetrators who have intention or motivation,

potential victims and the absence of capable

bystander to prevent the occurrence of violence. The

prevention of violence against women should address

at least one of those three aspects. This article

investigated the factors associated with the efficacy

of bystanders to prevent sexual violence among

Indonesian undergraduate students. Our review of

literature found such a study in Indonesian context is

not yet available. It is expected that the study will

narrow down the gap of knowledge in Indonesian

context and provide the recommendations for higher

education institutions in dealing with the issue.

Higher education institution is among the key

party responsible to address sexual violence against

Rusyidi, B., Bintari, A. and Wibowo, H.

The Promotion of Student’s Efﬁcacy to Prevent Sexual Violence: How Higher Education Institution Should Respond?.

DOI: 10.5220/0010273100002309

In Proceedings of Airlangga Conference on International Relations (ACIR 2018) - Politics, Economy, and Security in Changing Indo-Paciﬁc Region, pages 63-67

ISBN: 978-989-758-493-0

women. Campus and surrounding campus are the

places where sexual harassment or sexual assault

against female students potentially occur. In United

States for instance, sexual assault in campuses is

considered as a pressing issue, thus pushing the

institutions to deal with it seriously (Banyard,

Moynihan, & Crossman, 2009; Center for Disease

Control & Prevention, 2014). Although data on

sexual violence against students within and

surrounding colleges/universities in Indonesia is not

available, campus environment is not violent free and

the lack of attention to address the issue may make

campuses as risky places for any form of sexual

violence. In addition, higher education institution has

a mandate to strengthen student’s soft skills including

the promotion of pro-social behaviors. The

elimination of sexual violence will require the

existence of people who are concerned about the issue

and have willingness to perform actual acts to prevent

such violence. Education institution, therefore, is also

responsible to educate their students for being

responsive for the welfare of others including by

performing act as bystander. Banyard, Moynihan,

Walsh, Cohn & Burn (2009) described bystanders as

individuals who witness actual or potential situations

leading to sexual violence and have choices to

perform positive behaviors to prevent before, during

and after sexual violence occur.

2 METHODS

Data were collected from students in 3 large

universities in Sumedang, Bandung City and Cimahi

City in West Java province. Of the three universities,

one is private and the other two are public institutions.

Two universities are secular and one is affiliated with

Islamic education. Approval from universities,

schools and faculties were obtained prior to data

collection. Students were approached in their classes,

explained about the purpose of the study and

consented. The total of 1025 questionnaires were

distributed and 1003 were returned (98% response

rate) but only 953 students completed the

questionnaires.

Three standardized measures were used in the

study. Bystander Efficacy was measured using

Bystander Efficacy Scale developed by Banyard,

Plante & Moynihan (2005). The Scale asks the level

of confidence of individuals in potentially doing 14

behaviours to prevent sexual violence against women.

Participants rate their confidence on a scale of 1 to

100 percent. Higher score means higher level of

confidence or efficacy to act as bystander in

intervening a sexual violence incident. The level of

reliability of Bystander Efficacy Scale in this study

was .89.

Two other instruments were utilized to measure

predictor variables which are Attitudes toward

Women Scale – short version (ATWS) by Spence,

Helmreich & Strapp (1973) and Religiosity Scale

(Haj-Yahia, 1998). ATWS consists of 25 items that

are measured using a four-point Likert scale (0 to 3),

providing scores along a continuum range from

endorsement of traditional sex roles to an egalitarian

view of the roles of women and men. The ATWS is

scored so that a high score reflects more feminist,

egalitarian attitudes and a low score reflects more

conservative, traditional gender attitudes. ATWS is

the most widely used instrument to assess women

roles and rights in family and society with very good

internal consistency (Bryne, Felker, Vacha-Haase, &

Rickard, 2011). Reliability test of the Scale le in this

study was .77, indicating a good internal consistency.

Religiosity Scale was applied to measure

participants’ level of religiosity. Three items of the

Scale assess participants’ subjective perspective

regarding the extent of their religiosity in general,

religious devotion, and religious affiliation through

three items (Haj-Yahia, 1998). In original scoring

system, a low score meant a high level of religiosity

and a high score means a low level of religiosity.

However, in this study, the scoring was reversed so

that a high score means a high level of religiosity. The

Cronbach alpha of the Scale for this study was .82.

Other independent variables were assessed using

self-developed measures. The respondents were

asked to provide information about their sex (Female

as reference group), age, cohort, study program,

parents’ highest education level (1=below primary

school, 9=doctoral degree), parents’ employment

status, religion, and ethnicity.

3 RESULTS

Nine hundred fifty three undergraduate students aged

19 years old on average (age range 17 to 30 years)

completed the survey. Almost ¾ of them were and

the remaining 25% were male students. Participants

were studying in various disciplines: medicine, law,

social and political sciences, dentistry, education, and

religious law. The majority of the students (86%)

identified themselves as Muslims and the other 14%

were non-Muslim (Christians, Hinduism and

Buddhism). The levels of parents’ education were

varied, starting from below primary school to

postgraduate levels. Fathers’ average level of

ACIR 2018 - Airlangga Conference on International Relations

education was 12 years (senior high school), which

was higher than the mothers’ (11 years).

The mean efficacy score of participants was 902;

indicating that on average the participants have upper

middle level of confidence to act as bystander.

Descriptive analysis found students reported that they

mostly confident in performing bystander behaviour

of to prevent potential sexual violence against

women in the following activities: seeking services

or help to assist friend who experienced intimate

partner violence (M=77.2; SD=23.5), Contacting the

police when hearing someone near my house

screaming for help (M=75.3, SD=24.9), talking with

friend who are suspected facing intimate partner

(M=72.1; SD=22.5), doing something to help a

female friend who feels uncomfortable among several

guys (M=71, SD=24.2), and criticizing a male friend

who admitted that he had sex with a drunken female

(M=71, SD=23.5).

On the other hand, the lest confident behaviour to

do as reported by students were: offering help to

accompany a female stranger who look need an

assistance to return to her place at night after party or

campus activities (M=35.1, SD=27.8), delivering

straight comments to correct the lecture who provide

inappropriate or wrong information about the cause

of sexual violence against women (M=57, SD=24),

and seeking help when find out my neighbour is

experiencing dating violence (M=59.8, SD=28).

Multi regression analysis found two significant

predictors of bystander efficacy: the level of

religiosity and type of university. Level of religiosity

positively associated with bystander efficacy in

which the higher the level of religiosity, the higher

efficacy to intervene as bystander (p<.001). Higher

level of efficacy to act as bystander to prevent sexual

violence was also reported by students from public

universities compared to their counterpart from

private university (p<.05). Other predictors including

sex, level of parents’ education, attitudes toward

gender roles, university affiliation (secular versus

religious-based university) were not found as

significant predictors of efficacy to perform

bystander acts. All variables included in the analysis

explained 14% of variability in the student’s efficacy.

4 DISCUSSION

The descriptive finding show that in average the

university students in this study have a middle level

of confidence to perform bystander acts when

knowing or witnessing potential sexual violence-

related event. This shows that the university students

are not apathy toward their surroundings but having

preference to respond to possible sexual violence

situation either to prevent it from happening or

helping the potential victim. They reported greatest

confidence to act when the victim or perpetrator of

violence is someone they know as a friend. However,

they were less confident to perform the act of

bystander when dealing with a stranger or someone

with the authority (i.e. the lecturer).

Such patterns have been confirmed in previous

research. Studies found the intention to intervene is

higher when bystander feel that the victim share same

social characteristics with the victim (Levine &

Crowther, 2008; Levine, Cassidy, Brazier, & Richer,

2002). Regardless of the gender, tendency to

intervene is higher when the potential victim is a

friend than unknown person (Burn, 2009). Bystanders

also considers the potential cost that may occur from

their intervention, thus they will choose taking action

that cause them less costs (Fritzsche, Finkelstein, &

Penner, 2000). This may explain why students were

discouraged to correct their lecturer although they

were aware that the lecture deliver wrong messages

about sexual violence against women to avoid

potential conflict that put them in a risky position. In

addition, they feel more confident to help friend for

the reason of “sameness” but less confident to help

the stranger both because they feel do not belong to

the same group with someone they do not know or

they afraid having more problems when dealing with

strangers.

The study found level of religiosity positively

predict efficacy to intervene. Previous studies have

confirmed level of religiosity associated with pro-

social behaviour. Religious involvement serve as

protective factor for negative behaviour such as

crime, substance abuse and alcohol consumption

(Geppert, Bogenschutz, & Miller, 2007),

pornography (Baltazar et al, 2010), or voluntary

activities (Bekker & Schuyt, 2008). Unfortunately,

very limited study investigated the association

between level of religiosity and bystander efficacy to

prevent sexual violence against women as performed

in this study. One study conducted 21among

undergraduate and graduate students in the United

States by Foubert and Rizzo (2013) found no

significant association between religiosity (intrinsic

and extrinsic dimension) with efficacy to prevent

potential sexual violence. This study confirmed the

contrary. In the future, more studies are needed to

examine the rigorousness of association between

religiosity and bystander efficacy

This study found that the type of university as a

significant variable in predicting the level of efficacy.

The Promotion of Student’s Efﬁcacy to Prevent Sexual Violence: How Higher Education Institution Should Respond?

No conclusive explanation can be derived from this

finding because so far the study on this dimension is

not exist. However, one possible explanation offered

by the study related to the characteristics of the study

programs. In this study, students at private university

mostly came from specific majors like dentistry and

medicine and it is likely that they received less

exposure to discussions or courses about sexual

violence against women. On the contrary, students

from public universities came from mixed disciplines

and are more aware about the issue, thus making them

feeling more prepared to respond. However, further

study needs to consider investigating the nature of

curriculum and extra-curricular activities at the

university to understand their influences on the

students’ sensitivity about sexual violence and

interventions.

How the higher education institution can utilize

the findings of this study? The university can

strengthen student’s efficacy to perform bystander

behaviour not only for someone they know but also

strangers who need help. Bystander education and

trainings can be included in classes and or out class

activities to sensitize students with the importance

and readiness in helping to prevent sexual violence or

help the possible victims. At the same time, they also

need to be informed about potential risks of

intervening and strategies to minimize the potential

harms of helping.

In other countries, especially United States,

various Bystander Intervention trainings have been

implemented in many campuses and have been found

to be effective in increasing students willingness and

readiness to intervene sexual assault-related situation

effective (Banyard, Moynihan, & Crossman, 2009;

Vladitiu, Martin & Macy, 2011). The campuses are

also active in promoting the awareness about sexual

assault and have developed specific guidelines to

prevent and deal with the case that bound the campus

community. However, based on researcher

observation, none of the university included in this

study ever conducted any training or placed protocols

related to the prevention of sexual violence and

bystander intervention for their students, lecturers,

and staff.

Despite its contribution to existing knowledge,

this study poses some limitations. First, it investigates

the confidence to act not actual acts. Assessing

willingness to act may contain risk of social

desirability so that the respondents tend to provide

normative answers. Unfortunately, this study does not

assess social desirability tendency of the participant.

Second, the study utilizes a simple measure for

religiosity. In fact, religiosity covers complex

dimensions that need to be assessed more thoroughly.

Third, all variables in the study only explained less

than 20 percent variability in dependent variable.

Future studies need to consider other predictor

variables to increase the explanatory power.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Bystander appropriate responses prior, during and

after the occurrence of potential sexual violence can

play important role to minimize the incident and

damages resulted from sexual assault. This study can

be considered a pioneer in investigating factors

associated with bystander efficacy in Indonesian

context and it has added some knowledge regarding

the role of level of religiosity and type of university

in influencing the level of confidence to take actions

as bystanders in responding to potential sexual

assault. Further studies should be encouraged to find

more evidence of the association.

The elimination of sexual violence is a

responsibility of all parties, including the higher

education institution because campus is not free from

any form of violence and also because the institution

is responsible to produce graduates with high

morality and integrity. The degree of confidence to

act as bystanders found among students need to be

promoted by well-structured interventions by the

universities. Equipping students with appropriate

knowledge, attitude and skills to respond to sexual

violence is important for them to protect themselves

from the assault as well as to make them become more

active in protecting the welfare of others, their

communities and society.

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The Promotion of Student’s Efﬁcacy to Prevent Sexual Violence: How Higher Education Institution Should Respond?