In 2022, It’s On Us released the research report, Engaging Men: Campus Sexual Assault Attitudes and Behaviors, which found that college men perceive most existing sexual assault prevention education trainings to be ineffective.1 This qualitative, interviewbased study demonstrated that the combination of academic and athletic pressures faced by male athletes, the social stigmas surrounding highprofile instances of domestic and sexual violence cases involving athletes, and the use of irrelevant programming by institutions makes it difficult to effectively facilitate prevention conversations with male athletes. At the same time, male athletes are traditionally seen as harbingers of campus culture, often serving as high-profile leaders within the community who possess the ability to influence broader socio-cultural beliefs and behaviors among their peers. Therefore, It’s On Us determined it was critical to gather a deeper understanding of how to engage this population of students in prevention education programs.
It’s On Us conducted this follow-up research study, Prevention is a Team Sport: Empowering Male Student Athletes in Your Game Plan for Campus Sexual Assault Prevention (Prevention is a Team Sport), to explore how to uniquely engage male college athletes in sexual assault prevention education. It’s On Us conducted 38 focus group sessions with 710 male athletes from Division I, Division II, Division III, community/junior college (JUCO), and Club Sports teams nationwide. The teams consisted of NCAA teams, NJCAA teams, and club teams.