Meta-Analysis Snapshot
|
Literature Coverage Dates |
Number of Studies |
Number of Study Participants |
| Meta Analysis 1 |
1978-2002 |
69 |
18172 |
Meta Analysis 1Anderson and Whiston (2005) evaluated the effectiveness of sexual assault education programs on reducing sexual assault on college campuses. Specifically, the meta-analysis looked at the impact of sexual assault education programs on the following seven outcomes: rape attitudes, rape empathy, rape-related attitudes, rape knowledge, behavioral intentions, rape awareness behaviors, and incidence of sexual assault. Rape attitudes focused on rape myths, victim blaming, and attitudes toward rape. Rape-related attitudes focused on attitudes that were thought to promote sexual assault, such as sex-role stereotyping and negative attitudes toward women.
To identify studies for their meta-analysis, the authors used keywords related to sexual assault (e.g., rape, prevention, intervention) to search the following databases: PsycINFO, ERIC, MEDLINE, Dissertation Abstracts Online, Criminal Justice Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, and the Social Science Citation Index. References of relevant articles found through the initial database search were also examined. Studies were also located by examining the past 5 years of all relevant sexual assault journals and by contacting authors who were well-versed in the sexual assault literature. To be eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis, studies had to examine an intervention designed to decrease sexual assault behaviors and rape-related attitudes. The study sample had to include North American college students who participated in a sexual assault education program. The study also had to measure the effectiveness of sexual assault education on at least one of the seven outcomes of interest. Data on these outcome variables had to be gathered at pretest and posttest, and the study had to compare one or more interventions with a control group. Eligible control groups included placebo, wait-list, minimal treatment, or no-treatment. Finally, each study had to provide the necessary information to calculate effect sizes.
The search yielded 120 potential studies. Of these, 69 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the meta-analysis. The 69 studies represented 102 treatment interventions, because some studies included more than one intervention. The included studies had a total sample size of 18,172, of which 48.7 percent were women. Sixty-eight percent of the included studies used random assignment, and the remaining studies used quasi-experimental designs. The average age of the sample was approximately 20. In studies where race/ethnicity could be determined, the following groups were represented: African American, Asian American, Latino, white, and other. Finally, regarding the control group used in the included studies, 59.4 percent used a no-treatment control, 10.1 percent used a wait-list control, 24.6 percent used a placebo intervention as a control, and 5.8 percent used minimal treatment as the control group.
The meta-analysis investigated seven outcomes representing 262 effect sizes; however, for the purpose of this CrimeSolutions review, only rape attitudes and rape-related attitudes were analyzed, representing 115 effect sizes and 56 effect sizes, respectively. To analyze the impact of sexual assault education programs on sexual assault, each study outcome was weighted by an inverse variance weight and then combined to create a summary effect size, also known as the standardized mean difference.
