Are We Actually Making Waves? A Preliminary Evaluation of the Waves of Change Bystander Intervention Training for Sexual Violence Prevention

To combat campus sexual violence, many universities employ bystander intervention training. Waves of Change is a peer-led bystander intervention program developed for rural Canadian universities. This study evaluated its impact on bystander behaviors and whether effects were mediated by increased knowledge and self-efficacy. Participants (N = 249) were undergraduate students at a small Eastern Canadian university. Data were collected through self-report questionnaires in a two-wave longitudinal survey. Measures included retrospective pre-posttest knowledge of sexual violence, self-efficacy to intervene, and intervention behaviors. Completing Waves of Change was significantly associated with increased knowledge about sexual violence – both compared to non-completers and to participants’ own pre-intervention scores. Serial mediation analyses revealed a significant indirect effect of program participation on bystander behaviors via knowledge and self-efficacy. These results demonstrate the preliminary effectiveness of Waves of Change and support its potential as a scalable model for campus sexual violence prevention.