How do Adolescents React to Situations of Witnessed Sexual Violence. Bystander Behaviour as a Starting Point for Prevention?

In this research project, 4334 9th grade students and their principals in 128 schools were surveyed during the 2015/2016 school year. 86 % of adolescents reported having witnessed situations of sexual violence against peers. The majority of adolescents intervened in these situations: the most common intervention was telling other people about the situation. Other common reactions included confronting the perpetrator and the talking to the victim. However, many adolescents especially boys reported no bystander intervention behaviour at all. Logistic regressions show that adolescents were more likely to intervene if the perpetrator were also adolescent, if the adolescents experienced sexual violence themselves and if they had received more information about the subject of sexual harassment in school. The results indicate that informing students about sexual harassment could improve bystander behaviour of adolescents and contribute to the prevention of sexual violence.