The Relationship Between Sex and Perception of the Effectiveness of the Haven Module (2016)

Undergraduate: Natalie Johnson

Faculty Advisor: Courtney Rivard
Department: Global Studies

---

With one in five women experiencing sexual assault during their college career, effective sexual assault prevention programs are an urgent need for college campuses (Krebs, Lindquist, Warner, Fisher, Martin, 2007). In 2014, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill instated a new sexual assault prevention policy requiring incoming students to complete the Ever¿¿fi Haven online module, aimed at educating students in prohibited conduct, prevention methods, and resources for those who experience sexual assault (Jackson, 2015). However, the effectiveness of the Haven module has been called into question (Jackson, 2015). Through quantitative survey methods, this study assesses how a student¿¿¿s sex affects their perception of Haven¿¿¿s effectiveness at preventing sexual assault. As college women are proven to be at a greater risk than men of experiencing sexual assault and to have a heightened fear of rape as compared to their male counterparts, it was hypothesized that women would be more likely than men to perceive the Haven module as ineffective (Fisher, Sloan, 2003). ¿¿¿However, the data obtained disproved this hypothesis, as males were more likely than females to report Haven as ineffective. While these findings contradicted the hypothesis, the results may be attributed to bias caused by hyperawareness of sexual assault on campuses contemporary with the study and the tendency of males to have more difficulty than females with interacting with online learning environments.