The Journal of Sex Research

ISSN: 0022-4499 (Print) 1559-8519 (Online) Journal homepage: />
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
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Published online: 07 Jun 2016.

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Date: 20 June 2016, At: 05:02



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 victim is unable to give consent. It includes completed or
attempted sexual acts obtained through physical force, psychological intimidation or manipulation, threats, or incapacitation (such as through intoxication; World Health
Organization [WHO], 2002). College women are at a high
risk of sexual assault due to several characteristics of campus 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:

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 bystanders (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

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 certainly 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 example, 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 medical college students in Japan found that verbal abuse, physical abuse, and sexual harassment are common: Nearly
90% of students who were surveyed at seven medical colleges reported that they had experienced harassment at
drinking parties organized by a student club (NagataKobayashi 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 universities 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

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 countries (two universities in Japan and one university each in
the United States, India, Vietnam, and China) from the fall


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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 approximately 32,000 students. One of the universities in Japan is a
comprehensive research institution with approximately

their respective universities by translators, and was backtranslated 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-toChange 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 subscale suggests a person is less aware that sexual assault exists.
Cronbach’s alpha for the precontemplation subscale by country 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

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
sexual assault?” To assess whether the participant knew
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
you were a victim of sexual assault, to whom would you
seek help?”

independent variables to evaluate how the Readiness-toChange Scale was associated with the bystander behavior scale.

Demographic Information. Standard demographic
questions were used for age, sex, college major, and other
demographic variables.

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

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 someone 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
Sociodemographic Variables
Age, mean (SD)**
Female, n (%)
Year in college, n (%)
Freshman (1st year)
Sophomore (2nd year)
Junior (3rd year)
Senior (4th year)
Major, n (%)
Economics
Sociology
Political Science
(Pre-)Law
Psychology
Undecided
Other

Total

73.9

19.9 (1.6)
65.9

40.9
26.1
20.4
11.9

28.6
15.5
22.8
33.0

63.7
13.0
13.0
10.2

0.4
41.7
49.5
6.0

39.1
28.2
18.9
13.4


0
41.7
0.9
0.4
3.2
1.4

10.9
21.0
12.6
8.0
5.9
0.8
40.8

55.2
0.4
0
0
0.4
0.8
43.3

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

4


SEXUAL ASSAULT PREVENTION IN THE U.S. AND ASIA


82 (20.8)
57 (41.3)
Family b
77 (19.5)
9 (6.5)
Neighbor b
41 (10.4)
22 (15.9)
Myself b
If you were a victim of sexual assault, from whom would you seek help?
Not seek help
161 (14.2)
11 (5.3)
Family
632 (55.6)
126 (61.2)
Police
513 (45.1)
114 (55.3)
Friend
495 (43.6)
118 (57.3)
Hospital/clinic
340 (29.9)
99 (48.1)
Attorney
334 (29.4)
64 (31.1)
Help center for sexual assault
313 (27.6)


129 (59.7)

132 (55.5)

28 (10.7)

< 0.01

45 (20.9)
29 (64.4)
15 (33.3)
0 (0)
2 (4.4)
4 (8.9)

73 (33.8)
27 (37.0)
24 (32.9)
8 (11.0)
20 (27.4)
9 (12.3)

99 (41.6)
20 (20.2)
13 (13.1)
14 (14.1)
41 (41.4)
4 (4.0)


21 (9.7)

24 (10.1)
139 (58.4)
113 (47.5)
100 (42.0)
65 (27.3)
92 (38.7)
92 (38.7)
28 (11.8)

30 (11.5)
184 (70.5)
135 (51.7)
126 (48.3)
100 (38.3)
125 (47.9)
65 (24.9)
42 (16.1)



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.

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-toChange 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

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)
Precontemplation**
Contemplation**
Action**
Bystander behavior**

Total
2.37
3.18
1.97
3.80

3.28
2.12
3.61

(0.85)
(0.91)
(0.78)
(0.58)

Vietnam
2.06
3.40
2.39
3.67

(0.76)
(0.71)
(1.19)
(0.57)

China
2.06
3.18
2.22
4.07

(0.73)
(1.12)
(0.74)
(0.47)



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

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

Level 1
Intercept
Age
Male
Campus org.
Community org.
Knows anyone
Won’t seek help
Precontemplation
Contemplation
Action
Level 2
Intercept
Country
−2 log likelihood

Bystander
Behavior
(Model 1)
Estimate

p

0.26
−0.19
−0.13
−0.10
0.07
—
—
—

< 0.01
n.s.
< 0.01
n.s.
< 0.01
n.s.
n.s.

3.03
0.004
−0.17
0.04
0.19
0.04
0.08
—
—
—

< 0.01
n.s.

0.13
−0.07
—
—
—

< 0.01
n.s.
n.s.
n.s.
n.s.
< 0.01
n.s.

3.69
0.01
−0.02
0.02
0.02
0.11
−0.06
−0.12
0.11
−0.06

< 0.01
n.s.
n.s.
n.s.
n.s.


n.s.
< 0.01

0.04
0.26
1601.8

n.s.
< 0.01

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 behaviors. After controlling for country, some individual factors
had a significant impact on the Readiness-to-Change and
bystander behavior. Compared to female students, male students 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 experienced sexual assault were more likely to be interested in

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 somewhere 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


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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,

2014; Potter, Moynihan, & Stapleton, 2011). A study in the
United States suggested that campus-based sexual assault
prevention and interventions were different from community-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. participants reported lower levels of contemplation than participants 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 behaviors 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.

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 comparative insights about bystander behaviors to prevent sexual
assault that can serve as vital input to develop sexual assault
prevention programs, including bystander education programs, which is one of the first steps needed to reduce
sexual assault incidents on campus and in communities.

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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
Takeshi Sato for data collection.

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