The Journal of Sex Research

ISSN: 0022-4499 (Print) 1559-8519 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hjsr20

Bystander Attitudes to Prevent Sexual Assault: A

Study of College Students in the United States,
Japan, India, Vietnam, and China

Akiko Kamimura, Ha Ngoc Trinh, Hanh Nguyen, Niwako Yamawaki, Haimanti

Bhattacharya, Wenjing Mo, Ryan Birkholz, Angie Makomenaw & Lenora M.
Olson

To cite this article: Akiko Kamimura, Ha Ngoc Trinh, Hanh Nguyen, Niwako Yamawaki,
Haimanti Bhattacharya, Wenjing Mo, Ryan Birkholz, Angie Makomenaw & Lenora M.
Olson (2016): Bystander Attitudes to Prevent Sexual Assault: A Study of College Students
in the United States, Japan, India, Vietnam, and China, The Journal of Sex Research, DOI:
10.1080/00224499.2016.1184605

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2016.1184605

Published online: 07 Jun 2016.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 15

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=hjsr20

Download by: [University of California Santa Barbara] Date: 20 June 2016, At: 05:02
 THE JOURNAL OF SEX RESEARCH, 00(00), 1–8, 2016
Copyright © The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality
ISSN: 0022-4499 print/1559-8519 online
DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2016.1184605

Bystander Attitudes to Prevent Sexual Assault: A Study of College

Students in the United States, Japan, India, Vietnam, and China
Akiko Kamimura
Department of Sociology, University of Utah

Ha Ngoc Trinh
Department of Sociology, University of Utah; Vietnam National University
Hanh Nguyen
Department of Sociology, Vietnam National University in HCMC
Downloaded by [University of California Santa Barbara] at 05:02 20 June 2016

Niwako Yamawaki
Department of Psychology, Brigham Young University

Haimanti Bhattacharya
Department of Economics, University of Utah
Wenjing Mo and Ryan Birkholz
Department of Sociology, University of Utah
Angie Makomenaw
Prevention Education Advocacy Services, University of Northern Colorado

Lenora M. Olson
Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah

College women are at a high risk of sexual assault. Although programs that aim to change
bystander behaviors have been shown to be potentially effective in preventing sexual assault on
campuses in the United States, little is known about bystander behaviors outside of the United
States. The purpose of this study was to explore and compare factors affecting bystander
behaviors regarding sexual assault intervention and prevention among undergraduate students
in the United States, Japan, India, Vietnam, and China. A total of 1,136 students participated in
a self-reported survey. Results demonstrate substantial variations across countries. Bystander
behaviors are associated with multilevel factors, including gender, knowledge of individuals who
have experienced a sexual assault, and knowledge about campus or community organizations.

Sexual assault refers to any sexual act that occurs with
coercion, without consent, or in circumstances when a vic-
tim is unable to give consent. It includes completed or
attempted sexual acts obtained through physical force, psy-
chological intimidation or manipulation, threats, or incapa-
citation (such as through intoxication; World Health
Organization [WHO], 2002). College women are at a high
risk of sexual assault due to several characteristics of cam-
pus culture, including first time independence, limited
supervision, unstructured time, and availability of alcohol
Correspondence should be addressed to Akiko Kamimura, Department
of Sociology, University of Utah, 380 S 1530 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84112.
E-mail: akiko.kamimura@utah.edu
and drugs (Abbey, 2002; Armstrong, Hamilton, & Sweeney,
2006; Karjane, Fisher, & Cullen, 2005; Marchell &
Cummings, 2001).
Research on the causes of sexual violence and evaluation
of prevention efforts indicates that engaged positive bystan-
ders (also referred to as witnesses or defenders) are a key
piece in the prevention of sexual violence (Banyard &
Moynihan, 2011). Bystander education is designed to
change attitudes of college students about sexual assault
by promoting social norms that discourage tolerance of
sexual assault or any other violence while training students
as potential bystanders who can step in to help diffuse risky
situations, identify and challenge perpetrators, and assist
victims (Banyard, Eckstein, & Moynihan, 2010; Casey &
Lindhorst, 2009; McMahon & Banyard, 2012). In the
 KAMIMURA, TRINH, NGUYEN, YAMAWAKI, BHATTACHARYA, MO, BIRKHOLZ, MAKOMENAW, AND OLSON
United States, bystander programs are increasingly used as a
way to prevent sexual assault on college campuses
(Banyard, Moynihan, & Crossman, 2009; Banyard,
Moynihan, & Plante, 2007; Banyard, Plante, & Moynihan,
2004; McMahon & Banyard, 2012).
The bystander framework is “grounded in research about
the causes of sexual assault on campuses and the factors
identified by health behavior theories for changing attitudes
and behaviors” (Banyard et al., 2009, p. 446). The frame-
work posits that more favorable attitudes regarding bystan-
der behaviors will promote more preventive behaviors,
which should lead to reduction in sexual assaults. Training
men and women to understand the role of bystanders in
situations where violence against women is occurring may
reduce the incidence of violence (Bayard et al., 2004).
Downloaded by [University of California Santa Barbara] at 05:02 20 June 2016
Bystander training has been shown to positively impact
attitudes, including confidence as a bystander, intent to
take action, and perceived benefits of action (Banyard
et al., 2007).
Preventing sexual assault on college-aged women is a
vital need. The percentage of women aged 16 years or older
who reported sexual assault in the previous year in 20
countries located in Africa, Latin America, Asia, or
Eastern Europe ranged from 0.3% to 8.0% (WHO, 2002).
However, the vast majority of women who are sexually
assaulted do not report the assault to authorities (WHO,
2002). As a result, these prevalence rates are almost cer-
tainly gross underestimates. It is difficult to compare the
prevalence of sexual assault or other types of violence
against female college students across countries due to a
lack of standardized data collection regarding sexual assault,
the different age groups studied, and the different methods
of data collection, from self-reported data collected via
surveys to abstracting data from medical records. For exam-
ple, a national survey of college students from the United
States found that approximately 20% of female college
students are victims of sexual assault (The White House,
2014). A study of alcohol-related harassment among medi-
cal college students in Japan found that verbal abuse, phy-
sical abuse, and sexual harassment are common: Nearly
90% of students who were surveyed at seven medical col-
leges reported that they had experienced harassment at
drinking parties organized by a student club (Nagata-
Kobayashi et al., 2010). There are few studies on college
students and violence in India, China, and Vietnam.
According to a cross-national survey of 16 countries
(Straus, 2004), the rate of physical assault by a dating
partner at a university in Pune, India, was 41.2% for
females, which was the third highest among the 31 univer-
sities in the 16 countries in the study. Although not college
aged, nearly 40% of adolescents in Hong Kong, Shanghai,
and Taiwan reported experiencing dating violence (Shen,
Chiu, & Gao, 2012). A survey-based study conducted in
rural Vietnam reported that the prevalence of exposure to
physical or sexual intimate partner violence (IPV) was
32.7% for lifetime experience and 9.2% for past-year
2
experience among married women aged 17 to 60 years
(Vung, Ostergren, & Krantz, 2008).
Bystander programs are widely used in the United
States and show promising results for decreasing sexual
assault on college campuses (Banyard et al., 2009). They
may be useful in other countries as well. However, before
they can be translated into other cultural contexts, research
is needed to evaluate differences in bystander attitudes and
behaviors across cultures. Little is known about student
beliefs and bystander behaviors in college campuses out-
side of the United States. The purpose of this study was to
explore and compare attitudes and behaviors related to
bystander intervention among undergraduate students in
the United States, Japan, India, Vietnam, and China, as
these attitudes may influence sexual assault prevention
approaches across different countries. Our exploratory
study was guided by the World Association for Sexual
Health Declaration of Sexual Rights, which emphasizes
the importance of sexual rights, including bodily integrity,
consent, and lack of coercion (World Association for
Sexual Health, 2014). These values are part of the bystan-
der prevention model and should be applied to sexual
assault intervention and prevention in any country. We
also examine how bystander attitudes and behaviors are
related with each other, because attitudes are often asso-
ciated with behaviors in general (Bagozzi, 1981). We
hypothesize that there will be differences in attitudes and
behaviors regarding bystanders among college students in
the United States, Japan, India, China and Vietnam. In
particular, we conjecture that bystander interventions may
be perceived differently in individualistic versus collecti-
vistic cultures (Hofstede, 2001; Hofstede & Hofstede,
2005). For example, the United States is an individualistic
country; China and Vietnam are collectivistic countries;
and Japan and India are in between individualism and
collectivism. Because it is possible that whether one lives
in a collectivistic or individualistic country could affect
social attitudes (Boer & Fischer, 2013), bystander attitudes
would be influenced differently from country to country. In
highly collectivist cultures, such as China and Vietnam,
tightly cohesive groups (e.g., family, friends, clan) and
communities are generally developed, and in such groups
or communities collective goals over individual goals are
emphasized (Hofstede, 2001; Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005).
Thus, it was expected that individuals in a collectivistic
country would be more likely to engage in bystander
behaviors.
Method
Data Collection and Study Participants
The data were collected at six universities in five coun-
tries (two universities in Japan and one university each in
the United States, India, Vietnam, and China) from the fall
 SEXUAL ASSAULT PREVENTION IN THE U.S. AND ASIA
of 2012 to the spring of 2013. All six universities are public,
either state or national, and are located in mid- to large-sized
cities. The university located in the United States is the
flagship research university in the state and has approxi-
mately 32,000 students. One of the universities in Japan is a
comprehensive research institution with approximately
16,500 students, while the other university is also consid-
ered a research university but with a smaller enrollment
(about 6,000 students). The university in India focuses on
teaching and has 90,000 students, including its affiliated
colleges. The university located in Vietnam is one of the
largest research universities in the country with nearly
36,000 students. The university in China primarily offers
courses in business and engineering and has approximately
13,000 students. The university in the United States has an
Downloaded by [University of California Santa Barbara] at 05:02 20 June 2016
onsite sexual assault prevention program while other uni-
versities in this study did not. At each university, a consent
cover letter and survey instrument were made available to
undergraduate students aged 18 to 30 years attending a
social science class. If a student agreed to participate, he
or she submitted the survey during class time. The classes
were selected based on whether an instructor at that uni-
versity was able to allow 15 minutes to administer the
survey in class (because some classes have very strict con-
tent requirements, not all instructors felt that they had the
time to administer the survey). The institutional review
board (IRB) of the university in the United States approved
the study and included a study protocol that followed the
guidelines for international research. One of the Japanese
universities approved the study prior to data collection.
While the other participating universities did not have for-
mal IRBs, we conducted the survey after receiving permis-
sion from the administrative head of the institutions. The
IRB of the U.S. academic institution has detailed guidelines
for international research. This study protocol followed
every step of the guidelines and was approved by the U.S.
academic institution.
The survey was administered in English at the universi-
ties in the United States and India. One of the authors who
is originally from India and is familiar with the Indian
university in this study determined that the English version
is suitable for the college students in India. The survey was
translated into Japanese, Vietnamese, and Chinese for use at
their respective universities by translators, and was back-
translated by other translators into English. The study team
has one or two native speakers of each of the languages who
validated the reconciliation.
Survey Instrument
Readiness-to-Change Scale. To measure attitudes
toward sexual assault and awareness about sexual assault,
we used the Readiness-to-Change Scale (Banyard et al.,
2010). This scale measures how ready an individual is to
take action if he or she encounters a situation where
someone is at risk of sexual assault. The Readiness-to-
Change Scale includes three subscales each with three
items, (a) precontemplation subscale; (b) contemplation
subscale; and (c) action subscale. All items are measured
by a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Not at all true; 5 = Very much
true). We used the mean of each subscale for the analyses.
The three items on the precontemplation subscale are as
follows: “I don’t think sexual assault is a big problem on
campus”; “I don’t think there is much I can do about sexual
assault on campus”; and “There isn’t much need for me to
think about sexual assault on campus; that’s the job of the
crisis center.” A higher score on the precontemplation sub-
scale suggests a person is less aware that sexual assault exists.
Cronbach’s alpha for the precontemplation subscale by coun-
try was 0.569 for the United States, 0.623 for Japan, 0.585
for India, 0.545 for China, and 0.630 for Vietnam.
The two items on the contemplation subscale which were
used for the analyses include “I think I can do something
about sexual assault and am planning to find out what I can
do about the problem” and “I am planning to learn more
about the problem of sexual assault on campus.” One item
was eliminated due to low Cronbach’s alpha. A higher score
on the contemplation subscale implies a person is more
aware that sexual assault exists and wants to learn more
about sexual assault. The r value for the contemplation
subscale by country was 0.861 for the United States, 0.743
for Japan, 0.658 for India, 0.565 for China, and 0.875 for
Vietnam.
The action subscale includes three items: “I have recently
attended a program about sexual assault”; “I am actively
involved in projects to deal with sexual assault on campus”;
and “I have recently taken part in activities or volunteered
my time on projects focused on ending sexual assault on
campus.” A higher score on the action subscale indicates
that a person is ready to take more action. Cronbach’s alpha
for the action subscale by country was 0.815 for the United
States, 0.872 for Japan, 0.755 for India, 0.771 for China,
and 0.943 for Vietnam.
Potential Bystander Behaviors. Potential bystander
behaviors to help people who are at risk of sexual assault
were measured by a set of 10 most commonly reported
bystander behaviors listed by Banyard (2008) using a 5-
point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree; 5 = Strongly
agree). The statements include “Walk a friend who has
had too much to drink home from a party” or “Talk to the
friends of a drunk person to make sure they don’t leave their
drunk friend behind at a party.” A higher score indicates that
a person is more interested in employing bystander
behaviors to help people who are at risk of sexual assault.
Cronbach’s alpha for the bystander behavior scale by
country was 0.848 for the United States, 0.725 for Japan,
0.703 for India, 0.744 for China, and 0.809 for Vietnam.
Knowledge and Help-Seeking Intentions Related to
Sexual Assault. We developed questions to assess
students’ knowledge. Following is an example of a
question regarding knowledge of organizations on campus
or in the community: “Have you heard about any
3
 KAMIMURA, TRINH, NGUYEN, YAMAWAKI, BHATTACHARYA, MO, BIRKHOLZ, MAKOMENAW, AND OLSON

organizations or programs on campus that work to prevent independent variables to evaluate how the Readiness-to-
sexual assault?” To assess whether the participant knew Change Scale was associated with the bystander behavior scale.
someone who had experienced sexual assault, we asked:
“Do you know anyone who has experienced sexual
assault?” To examine intent to seek help, we asked: “If
Results
you were a victim of sexual assault, to whom would you
seek help?”
Participant Demographics

Demographic Information. Standard demographic
questions were used for age, sex, college major, and other
demographic variables.
Data Analysis
Descriptive statistics, presented as percentages for
Downloaded by [University of California Santa Barbara] at 05:02 20 June 2016
Table 1 presents demographics of the 1,136 students who
participated in the survey. The mean age was 20 years. The
difference in age between the youngest (in Japan, 19.5 years
old) and the oldest (in the United States, 20.9 years old) was
18 months. Slightly over half of the sample (n = 728,
64.1%) was female, and the percentage of female students
in each country was similar to the percentage of female

students located in their respective campus. Approximately

categorical variables and means with standard deviations
(SDs) for continuous variables, were used to describe the
distribution of the students’ demographic characteristics.
We used Pearson chi-square to compare differences in
categorical variables by country and an analysis of var-
iance (ANOVA) to compare means of bystander beha-
viors by country. The further mean differences on the
results of ANOVA were analyzed by post hoc Tukey
analysis at the 0.05 significance level. Statistical soft-
ware SPSS (version 19) was used for descriptive statis-
tics and ANOVAs.
Hierarchical modeling was used to test the impact of indivi-
dual characteristics on the Readiness-to-Change and bystander
behaviors (level 1 = individual; level 2 = country) using proc
mixed (SAS version 9.4). The individual factors included age,
gender (male = 1, female = 0), knowledge about a campus
organization to prevent sexual assault (yes = 1, no = 0), knowl-
edge about a community organization (yes = 1, no = 0), knowl-
edge of someone who experienced sexual assault (yes = 1,
no = 0), and won’t seek help for sexual assault (won’t seek
help = 1, will seek help = 0). In addition, in the last model,
indicators of the Readiness-to-Change Scale were added as
one-third of the students (41%) were freshmen, and one-
quarter (26.1%) were majoring in economics, followed by
sociology (11.7%).
Knowledge and Help-Seeking Intent Related to Sexual
Assault
Table 2 presents the students’ knowledge related to sev-
eral aspects of sexual assault. Overall, more students
reported hearing about organizations in the community
that work to prevent sexual assault (39.3%) compared to
organizations on campus (28.6%) This pattern varied only
slightly by country. While one-third of all students (34.7%)
reported knowing someone who had experienced sexual
assault, this percentage was twice as high for students in
the United States (67.0%). Most students who knew some-
one who had experienced sexual assault reported knowing a
college friend (24.6%) or other friend (45.9%) who had
experienced an assault. Combining these two categories
resulted in a friend being the person most often known to
the student, except for students in Vietnam, where a

Table 1. Demographic Characteristics

Total United States Japan India Vietnam China

Sociodemographic Variables (N = 1,136) (N = 206) (N = 215) (N = 216) (N = 238) (N = 261)

Age, mean (SD)** 20.0 (1.8) 20.9 (2.7) 19.5 (1.6) 20.1 (1.2) 19.6 (1.1) 19.9 (1.6)
Female, n (%) 64.1 56.3 52.6 69.9 73.9 65.9
Year in college, n (%)
Freshman (1st year) 40.9 28.6 63.7 0.4 39.1 67.0
Sophomore (2nd year) 26.1 15.5 13.0 41.7 28.2 30.7
Junior (3rd year) 20.4 22.8 13.0 49.5 18.9 1.9
Senior (4th year) 11.9 33.0 10.2 6.0 13.4 0
Major, n (%)
Economics 26.1 3.4 3.3 52.3 10.9 55.2
Sociology 11.7 25.2 14.0 0 21.0 0.4
Political Science 10.0 7.3 4.2 41.7 12.6 0
(Pre-)Law 7.7 1.0 29.8 0.9 8.0 0
Psychology 4.8 13.6 5.1 0.4 5.9 0.4
Undecided 6.4 9.2 20.0 3.2 0.8 0.8
Other 27.9 25.7 23.7 1.4 40.8 43.3

**p < 0.01 for comparing means by ANOVA test.

4
 SEXUAL ASSAULT PREVENTION IN THE U.S. AND ASIA

Table 2. Knowledge and Help-Seeking Intent for Sexual Assault

Total United States Japan India Vietnam China

Frequency (%) (N = 1,136) (N = 206) (N = 215) (N = 216) (N = 238) (N = 261) p Value a

Heard about organizations:

On campus that work to 325 (28.6) 93 (45.1) 43 (20.0) 62 (28.7) 111 (46.6) 16 (6.1) < 0.01
prevent sexual assault
In the community that 446 (39.3) 119 (57.8) 38 (17.7) 129 (59.7) 132 (55.5) 28 (10.7) < 0.01
work to prevent sexual
assault
Know anyone who has experienced sexual assault 394 (34.7) 138 (67.0) 45 (20.9) 73 (33.8) 99 (41.6) 39 (14.9) < 0.01
Other friend b 181 (45.9) 89 (64.5) 29 (64.4) 27 (37.0) 20 (20.2) 16 (41.0) NA
College friend b 97 (24.6) 37 (26.8) 15 (33.3) 24 (32.9) 13 (13.1) 8 (20.5) NA
Family b 82 (20.8) 57 (41.3) 0 (0) 8 (11.0) 14 (14.1) 3 (7.7) NA
Neighbor b 77 (19.5) 9 (6.5) 2 (4.4) 20 (27.4) 41 (41.4) 5 (12.8) NA
Myself b 41 (10.4) 22 (15.9) 4 (8.9) 9 (12.3) 4 (4.0) 2 (5.1) NA
If you were a victim of sexual assault, from whom would you seek help?
Not seek help 161 (14.2) 11 (5.3) 80 (37.2) 16 (7.4) 24 (10.1) 30 (11.5) < 0.01
Downloaded by [University of California Santa Barbara] at 05:02 20 June 2016

Family 632 (55.6) 126 (61.2) 69 (32.1) 114 (52.8) 139 (58.4) 184 (70.5) < 0.01
Police 513 (45.1) 114 (55.3) 44 (20.5) 107 (49.5) 113 (47.5) 135 (51.7) < 0.01
Friend 495 (43.6) 118 (57.3) 82 (38.1) 69 (31.9) 100 (42.0) 126 (48.3) < 0.01
Hospital/clinic 340 (29.9) 99 (48.1) 34 (15.8) 42 (19.4) 65 (27.3) 100 (38.3) < 0.01
Attorney 334 (29.4) 64 (31.1) 21 (9.8) 32 (14.8) 92 (38.7) 125 (47.9) < 0.01
Help center for sexual assault 313 (27.6) 65 (31.6) 28 (13.0) 63 (29.1) 92 (38.7) 65 (24.9) < 0.01
University resources 167 (14.7) 49 (23.8) 27 (12.6) 21 (9.7) 28 (11.8) 42 (16.1) < 0.01
a
Pearson chi-square comparing by nations.
b
Percentages are based on the number of those who knew someone who had experienced sexual assault.

neighbor was the person most often reported. Students who
responded that they themselves had experienced an assault
ranged from almost 11% in the United States to less than
1% in China. The majority of students reported that they
would seek help if they experienced a sexual assault. A
family member, the police, or a friend were reported as
the most common sources from which they would seek
help. University resources were the least reported.
Readiness-to-Change and Bystander Behavior
Table 3 presents the Readiness-to-Change and bystander
behaviors by country. All of the scales of the Readiness-to-
Change and bystander behaviors were significantly different
by country (p < 0.01). Tukey’s significant difference test
indicated a significant difference in the Readiness-to-Change
and bystander behaviors between countries (p < 0.05).
Japanese students were more likely to believe that sexual
assault was not a problem on campus compared to all other
groups, while Chinese students expressed a stronger interest in
learning about sexual assault compared to other groups.
Japanese students were least likely to take part in a program
or projects about sexual assault compared to students in other
countries. Chinese and U.S. students reported more interest in
helping a friend at risk of sexual assault than did Japanese,
Indian, and Vietnamese students.
Predictors of the Readiness-to-Change and Bystander
Behavior
Table 4 presents the results of the hierarchical modeling
which examined factors associated with Readiness-to-Change

Table 3. Readiness-to-Change and Bystander Behavior by Country

Mean (SD) Total United States Japan India Vietnam China F a

Post Hoc Tukey Analysis b

Precontemplation** 2.37 (0.83) 2.61 (0.72) 2.98 (0.65) 2.23 (0.85) 2.06 (0.76) 2.06 (0.73) 66.11 Vietnam = China = India < US < Japan
Contemplation** 3.18 (0.91) 2.83 (0.92) 3.21 (0.78) 3.28 (0.91) 3.40 (0.71) 3.18 (1.12) 12.54 US < Vietnam = India = Japan = China
Action** 1.97 (0.92) 1.62 (0.76) 1.39 (0.57) 2.12 (0.78) 2.39 (1.19) 2.22 (0.74) 57.98 Japan < US < India = China < Vietnam
Bystander behavior** 3.80 (0.57) 4.01 (0.58) 3.60 (0.48) 3.61 (0.58) 3.67 (0.57) 4.07 (0.47) 41.83 Japan = India = Vietnam < US = China

Notes. Precontemplation: a higher score indicates that sexual assault is not a problem on campus; contemplation: a higher score indicates more interest in
learning about sexual assault on campus; action: a higher score indicates recently took part in a program or projects about sexual assault; bystander behavior: a
higher score indicates more interest in helping a friend at risk of sexual assault.
a
F statistics for ANOVA test.
b
The equals symbol (=) indicates that there was no significant difference between the countries; The less-than symbol (<) indicates that there was significant
difference between the countries.
**p < 0.01 for ANOVA comparing means by nations.

5
 KAMIMURA, TRINH, NGUYEN, YAMAWAKI, BHATTACHARYA, MO, BIRKHOLZ, MAKOMENAW, AND OLSON

Table 4. Hierarchical Modeling on Readiness-to-Change and Bystander Behavior

Bystander Bystander
Behavior behavior
Precontemplation p Contemplation p Action p (Model 1) p (Model 2) p
Estimate Value Estimate Value Estimate Value Estimate Value Estimate Value

Level 1
Intercept 2.55 < 0.01 3.03 < 0.01 1.69 < 0.01 3.60 < 0.01 3.69 < 0.01
Age −0.01 n.s. 0.004 n.s. 0.002 n.s. 0.01 n.s. 0.01 n.s.
Male 0.26 < 0.01 −0.17 < 0.01 −0.03 n.s. −0.06 n.s. −0.02 n.s.
Campus org. −0.19 n.s. 0.04 n.s. 0.27 < 0.01 0.02 n.s. 0.02 n.s.
Community org. −0.13 < 0.01 0.19 < 0.01 0.18 < 0.01 0.03 n.s. 0.02 n.s.
Knows anyone −0.10 n.s. 0.04 n.s. −0.04 n.s. 0.13 < 0.01 0.11 < 0.01
Won’t seek help 0.07 n.s. 0.08 n.s. 0.17 < 0.05 −0.07 n.s. −0.06 n.s.
Precontemplation — — — — −0.12 < 0.01
Contemplation — — — — 0.11 < 0.01
Action — — — — −0.06 < 0.01
Level 2
Downloaded by [University of California Santa Barbara] at 05:02 20 June 2016

Intercept 0.13 n.s. 0.04 n.s. 0.11 n.s. 0.04 n.s. 0.04 n.s.
Country 0.53 < 0.01 0.79 < 0.01 0.67 < 0.01 0.28 < 0.01 0.26 < 0.01
−2 log likelihood 2415.3 2771.1 2667.1 1713.0 1601.8

Notes. Precontemplation: A higher score indicates that sexual assault is not a problem on campus; contemplation: a higher score indicates more interest in
learning about sexual assault on campus; action: a higher score indicates recently took part in a program or projects about sexual assault; bystander behavior: a
higher score indicates more interest in helping a friend at risk of sexual assault; n.s. = not significant.

and bystander behavior. Country was a significant factor
associated with Readiness-to-Change and bystander beha-
viors. After controlling for country, some individual factors
had a significant impact on the Readiness-to-Change and
bystander behavior. Compared to female students, male stu-
dents were more likely to believe sexual assault was not a
problem on campus and were less likely to be interested in
learning about sexual assault (p < 0.01). Students who had
heard about a campus organization to prevent sexual assault
were more likely to take part in a sexual assault prevention
program compared to those who had never heard about such
organizations (p < 0.01). Students who had heard about a
community organization to prevent sexual assault were more
likely to believe sexual assault was a problem on campus and
to take part in a sexual assault prevention program compared
to those who had never heard about such organizations
(p < 0.01). Participants who knew someone who had experi-
enced sexual assault were more likely to be interested in
helping a friend at risk of sexual assault (p < 0.01). Having
a belief that sexual assault is a problem on campus and more
interest in learning about sexual assault on campus were
associated with more interest in helping a friend at risk of
sexual assault (p < 0.01).
Discussion
This study explored bystander behaviors related to the
prevention of sexual assault among college students in the
United States, Japan, India, Vietnam, and China using the
bystander behavior model and the World Association for
Sexual Health Declaration of Sexual Rights as the guiding
frameworks. We found that bystander behaviors varied by
country. In addition, bystander behaviors were associated
with multiple factors, including gender, knowing someone
who had experienced sexual assault, and knowing about
campus or community organizations that are devoted to
sexual assault prevention or intervention.
Based on the results of this study, significant differences
exist between the United States, Japan, India, China, and
Vietnam in potential bystander behaviors. Compared to
students in the United States, Japan, and India, students in
China and Vietnam were more interested in learning about
sexual assault and believed sexual assault was a bigger
problem on campus. This difference may be influenced by
the cultural difference in the structure of interpersonal rela-
tionships. In highly collectivist cultures, such as China and
Vietnam, collective goals are stressed (Hofstede, 2001;
Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005). Such cohesion and group
goals may be associated with interest in learning about
sexual assault. Unlike Vietnam and China, the United
States is an individualism-oriented society (Hofstede,
2001). While U.S. students expressed interest in helping
friends at risk of sexual assault, they did not think sexual
assault was a problem on campus and were not as interested
in learning about sexual assault. India and Japan are some-
where in between in the spectrum of individualism-oriented
societies to collectivism-oriented societies; the results for
India and Japan also lie somewhere between the two ends.
While previous studies suggest that bystander behaviors
are influenced by individual characteristics of a bystander
and the context of the situation (e.g., severity of abuse,
relationship between victim and bystander; Bennett,
Banyard, & Garnhart, 2014), the results of our study suggest
that bystander behaviors may also influenced by a broader
level of social context. For example, Japanese students in

6
 SEXUAL ASSAULT PREVENTION IN THE U.S. AND ASIA
our study did not believe sexual assault was a problem on
campus and were not strongly interested in helping a friend
at risk of sexual assault. This may be due to the low
reported sexual assault rates in Japan (OECD, 2009). It is
possible that the majority of the Japanese students may not
have been aware of the issue of sexual assault. In fact, the
percentage of the Japanese students who knew someone
who had experienced sexual assault was the second lowest,
next to Chinese students. The results from the Indian stu-
dents indicate that they were aware of the problem of
violence against women but were not willing to be proac-
tive. According to Iravani (2011), it is not at all unusual to
hear that an individual who tried to intervene and stop a
violent incident, such as a sexual assault against a woman, is
attacked by the perpetrator(s) or that the police implicated
Downloaded by [University of California Santa Barbara] at 05:02 20 June 2016
the intervening individual or bystander instead of the actual
perpetrator(s) of violence in India. Further research is war-
ranted on how social values or systems would affect bystan-
der behaviors to intervene to prevent sexual assault.
Our findings also suggest that bystander behaviors are
associated with multiple factors, including gender, knowl-
edge about a person who has experienced sexual assault,
and knowledge about campus or community organizations.
Among the potential sources to which students would turn
to seek help after sexual assault or to prevent sexual assault,
university resources were ranked the lowest. It appears that
most students do not think of the university as the first
resource for prevention of sexual assault or help after a
sexual assault. In the United States, female students who
experience campus sexual assault are more likely to first tell
friends or roommates compared to a residence hall counse-
lor or crisis center advocate (Banyard et al., 2005). Many
U.S. universities (and perhaps universities in other coun-
tries) offer prevention services on and off campus (Karjane
et al., 2005). Students may be unclear about where to report
an assault to campus or other officials. Previous studies
using an ecological approach to prevent violence mainly
focused on smaller levels, such as schools (Brookmeyer,
Fanti, & Henrich, 2006) or neighborhoods (Obasaju, Palin,
Jacobs, Anderson, & Kaslow, 2009), to make changes.
Our overall results indicate a broader level of social
context should be considered to develop effective bystander
education to prevent sexual assault on college campuses.
Bystander education programs usually focus on changing
individual behaviors (Banyard et al., 2007; Bennett et al.,
2014; Potter, Moynihan, & Stapleton, 2011). A study in the
United States suggested that campus-based sexual assault
prevention and interventions were different from commu-
nity-based ones in terms of target populations and settings
(Payne, 2008). But each country has different legal and
legislation procedures and college structures. U.S. partici-
pants reported lower levels of contemplation than partici-
pants in other countries in this study, but they were
relatively high on action. This might suggest that U.S.
students are already actively working to address the issue
rather than just contemplating change. Japanese participants
were more likely to believe that sexual assault was not a
problem on campus than participants in the four other
countries. This low level of awareness among Japanese
students may be due to lack of campus programming related
to sexual assault prevention at Japanese universities. It may
be necessary to promote awareness of the issue of sexual
assault on campus in Japan to enhance bystander behaviors.
In contrast, Indian and Vietnamese participants were aware
of the issues of sexual assault on campus but reported low
interest in helping a friend at risk of sexual assault.
Education about bystander behaviors would be helpful for
Indian and Vietnamese students to promote potential beha-
viors that may lead to a reduction in sexual assault. Chinese
students expressed strong interests in learning about sexual
assault on campus and in helping a friend at risk of sexual
assault, but they reported not taking part in programs or
projects about sexual assault recently. Chinese universities
may consider increasing programs and projects about sexual
assault on campus. Future research is warranted to address
how international implementations of bystander education
programs can be implemented and evaluated in relation to
national, local, and university policies in different countries.
This study had some limitations. The student participants
were drawn using a convenience sample and were not
necessarily representative of college students at each uni-
versity or in each country. To the best of our knowledge,
comparable cross-national data regarding bystander beha-
viors are not available elsewhere. As a result, this study
contributes to the literature by allowing us to compare and
contrast bystander behaviors among students of similar ages
in different countries. This study was cross-sectional and
therefore causal relationships cannot be examined. While
this study focused on sexual assault against women, the
survey instruments used were not necessarily targeted to
represent only female victims, which may have over- or
underinflated our findings. A measure of social desirability
in regard to bystander behaviors was not included, and we
may have obtained more socially desirable answers than the
actual behavioral intention reported. The community struc-
ture (on campus or otherwise) that might affect bystander
behaviors was not included as a construct on the survey.
The precontemplation and contemplation subscales exhib-
ited low Cronbach’s alphas, which requires cautious inter-
pretation of the results. Future research is warranted to
develop scales of precontemplation and contemplation that
have higher reliability in multiple countries. Finally, this
study does not provide information on how potential
bystander behaviors are correlated with actual help beha-
viors or the prevention or the reduction of sexual assault
cases on campus. Previous studies show that knowledge
about potential bystander behaviors is associated with stu-
dents’ interest in the development of sexual assault preven-
tion programs, which could lead to decreased sexual
assaults (Banyard et al., 2010); hence, the results from our
study are still relevant.
Despite these limitations, this analysis contributes to the
existing literature by highlighting important factors asso-
ciated with bystander behaviors to prevent sexual assault
7
 KAMIMURA, TRINH, NGUYEN, YAMAWAKI, BHATTACHARYA, MO, BIRKHOLZ, MAKOMENAW, AND OLSON
among undergraduate students in the United States, Japan,
India, Vietnam, and China. Our findings provide compara-
tive insights about bystander behaviors to prevent sexual
assault that can serve as vital input to develop sexual assault
prevention programs, including bystander education pro-
grams, which is one of the first steps needed to reduce
sexual assault incidents on campus and in communities.
Funding
This research was partly funded by the Asia Center,
University of Utah. We gratefully acknowledge the students
who participated in this study and the contributions of Larry
Bench, Marcie Goodman, Ron Hrebenar, Thomas Quinn,
Jessica Eckhardt, Li Zhao, Jing Ye, Masami Okaue, and
Downloaded by [University of California Santa Barbara] at 05:02 20 June 2016
Takeshi Sato for data collection.
References
Abbey, A. (2002). Alcohol-related sexual assault: A common problem
among college students. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Supplement,
Suppl. (S14), 118–128. doi:10.15288/jsas.2002.s14.118
Armstrong, E., Hamilton, L., & Sweeney, B. (2006). Sexual assault on
campus: A multilevel, integrative approach to party rape. Social
Problems, 53(4), 483–499. doi:10.1525/sp.2006.53.4.483
Bagozzi, R. P. (1981). Attitudes, intentions, and behavior: A test of some
key hypotheses. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41(4),
607–627. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.41.4.607
Banyard, V. L. (2008). Measurement and correlates of prosocial bystander
behavior: The case of interpersonal violence. Violence and Victims, 23
(1), 83–97. doi:10.1891/0886-6708.23.1.83
Banyard, V. L., Eckstein, R. P., & Moynihan, M. M. (2010). Sexual violence
prevention: The role of stages of change. Journal of Interpersonal
Violence, 25(1), 111–135. doi:10.1177/0886260508329123
Banyard, V. L., & Moynihan, M. M. (2011). Variation in bystander beha-
vior related to sexual and intimate partner violence prevention:
Correlates in a sample of college students. Psychology of Violence, 1
(4), 287–301. doi:10.1037/a0023544
Banyard, V. L., Moynihan, M. M., & Crossman, M. T. (2009). Reducing
sexual violence on campus: The role of student leaders as empowered
bystanders. Journal of College Student Development, 50(4), 446–457.
doi:10.1353/csd.0.0083
Banyard, V. L., Moynihan, M. M., & Plante, E. G. (2007). Sexual violence
prevention through bystander education: An experimental evaluation.
Journal of Community Psychology, 35(4), 463–481. doi:10.1002/
jcop.20159
Banyard, V. L., Plante, E. G., Cohn, E. S., Moorhead, C., Ward, S., &
Walsh, W. (2005). Revisiting unwanted sexual experiences on campus:
A 12-year follow-up. Violence Against Women, 11(4), 426–446.
doi:10.1177/1077801204274388
Banyard, V. L., Plante, E. G., & Moynihan, M. M. (2004). Bystander
education: Bringing a broader community perspective to sexual vio-
lence prevention. Journal of Community Psychology, 32(1), 61–79.
doi:10.1002/jcop.10078
Bennett, S., Banyard, V. L., & Garnhart, L. (2014). To act or not to act, that
is the question? Barriers and facilitators of bystander intervention.
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 29, 476–496. doi:10.1177/
0886260513505210
Boer, D., & Fischer, R. (2013). How and when do personal values guide
our attitudes and sociality? Explaining cross-cultural variability in
attitude-value linkages. Psychological Bulletin, 139(5), 1113–1147.
doi:10.1037/a0031347
Brookmeyer, K. A., Fanti, K. A., & Henrich, C. C. (2006). Schools,
parents, and youth violence: A multilevel, ecological analysis.
Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 35(4), 504–
514. doi:10.1207/s15374424jccp3504_2
Casey, E. A., & Lindhorst, T. P. (2009). Toward a multi-level, ecological
approach to the primary prevention of sexual assault: Prevention in
peer and community contexts. Trauma, Violence, and Abuse, 10(2),
91–114. doi:10.1177/1524838009334129
Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, beha-
viors, institutions, and organizations across nations (2nd ed.).
London, United Kingdom: Sage.
Hofstede, G., & Hofstede, G. J. (2005). Cultures and organizations:
Software of the mind (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Iravani, M. R. (2011). Child abuse in India. Asian Social Science, 7, 150–
153. doi:10.5539/ass.v7n3p150
Karjane, H., Fisher, B., & Cullen, F. (2005). Sexual assault on campus:
What colleges and universities are doing about it. Washington, DC:
Office of Justice Programs, National Institute for Justice.
Marchell, T., & Cummings, N. (2001). Sexual violence on campus: Policies,
programs, and perspectives students. New York, NY: Springer.
McMahon, S., & Banyard, V. L. (2012). When can I help? A conceptual
framework for the prevention of sexual violence through bystander
intervention. Trauma, Violence, and Abuse, 13(1), 3–14. doi:10.1177/
1524838011426015
Nagata-Kobayashi, S., Koyama, H., Asai, A., Noguchi, Y., Maeno, T.,
Fukushima, O., … Shimbo, T. (2010). Experiences of alcohol-related
harassment among medical students. Medical Education, 44(12),
1213–1223. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2923.2010.03798.x
Obasaju, M. A., Palin, F. L., Jacobs, C., Anderson, P., & Kaslow, N. J.
(2009). Won’t you be my neighbor? Using an ecological approach to
examine the impact of community on revictimization. Journal of
Interpersonal Violence, 24(1), 38–53. doi:10.1177/0886260508314933
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2009). OECD
factbook 2009: Economic, environmental, and social statistics. Paris,
France: Author.
Payne, B. K. (2008). Challenges responding to sexual violence: Differences
between college campuses and communities. Journal of Criminal
Justice, 36(3), 224–230. doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2008.04.003
Potter, S. J., Moynihan, M. M., & Stapleton, J. G. (2011). Using social self-
identification in social marketing materials aimed at reducing violence
against women on campus. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 26,
971–990. doi:10.1177/0886260510365870
Shen, A. C.-T., Chiu, M. Y.-L., & Gao, J. (2012). Predictors of dating
violence among Chinese adolescents: The role of gender-role beliefs
and justification of violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 27(6),
1066–1089. doi:10.1177/0886260511424497
Straus, M. (2004). Prevalence of violence against dating partners by male
and female university students worldwide. Violence Against Women,
10(7), 790–811. doi:10.1177/1077801204265552
Vung, N. D., Ostergren, P.-O., & Krantz, G. (2008). Intimate partner
violence against women in rural Vietnam: Different socio-demo-
graphic factors are associated with different forms of violence. Need
for new intervention guidelines? BMC Public Health, 8, 11.
doi:10.1186/1471-2458-8-55
The White House. (2014). Not alone: The first report of the White House
Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault. Washington, DC:
Author. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/
docs/report_0.pdf
World Association for Sexual Health. (2014). Declaration of sexual rights.
Retrieved from http://www.worldsexology.org/wp-content/uploads/
2013/08/declaration_of_sexual_rights_sep03_2014.pdf
World Health Organization. (2002). World report on violence and health.
Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization.