South African Medical Research Council Gender and Health Research Unit, Pretoria, South Africa.
School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
BMC Public Health. 2023 Jun 27;23(1):1242. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-16149-x.
The extremely high prevalence of sexual violence victimisation reported among female students in South African public higher education demands urgent action to develop, rigorously evaluate and scale effective prevention interventions. This article details findings from a pilot feasibility study of Ntombi Vimbela! a campus sexual violence risk reduction intervention developed to tackle the high burden of sexual violence in higher education institutions in South Africa.
Ntombi Vimbela! (NV!) is a sexual violence risk reduction intervention that comprises sexuality empowerment, gender and social norm change, early-risk identification, self-defence, resistance and mental wellbeing components. NV! is comprised of ten workshop sessions running for 3.5 h each. Workshops are co-delivered by two trained peer facilitators per group of at most 20 first-year female students. One-year post-intervention quantitative outcome assessments were remotely completed by 98 participants who participated in the NV! pilot workshops. Qualitative assessments were conducted with 35 participants through in-depth telephone interviews (IDTIs).
One year after attending NV! workshops, most participants reported improved awareness of sexual rights, assertive communication, shifts in gender equitable beliefs, reductions in rape myth acceptance, improved expressed sexual relationship power sexual decision-making, and improved negotiation within their intimate relationships. Participants' depressive symptoms also significantly decreased. Many participants improved awareness of sexual assault risk and vigilance, including using self-protection strategies such as removing themselves from environments where alcohol intoxication posed sexual assault risks. Some participants used assertive communication to withstand peer pressure to engage in risky sexual behaviours. Most participants scored highly on the self-defence efficacy scale. Some participants were exposed to and successful in using verbal and physical resistance strategies in potential sexual assault risky situations.
These findings indicate the potential beneficial effects of NV! as a campus sexual violence risk reduction intervention at one-year post-intervention, which must be evaluated in a future rigorous randomised control trial.
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04607564 on 29/10/2020.
南非公立高等教育机构的女学生报告的性暴力受害率极高，这一现象急需采取行动，开发、严格评估和推广有效的预防干预措施。本文详细介绍了 Ntombi Vimbela！的试点可行性研究结果，这是一种针对南非高等教育机构性暴力负担过重而开发的减少校园性暴力风险的干预措施。
Ntombi Vimbela！（NV！）是一种减少性暴力风险的干预措施，包括性赋权、性别和社会规范改变、早期风险识别、自卫、抵制和心理健康组成部分。NV！由十个工作坊组成，每个工作坊持续 3.5 小时，每个小组由最多 20 名一年级女学生中的两名经过培训的同伴辅导员共同授课。98 名参加 NV！试点工作坊的参与者远程完成了干预后一年的定量结果评估。通过深入的电话访谈（IDTIs）对 35 名参与者进行了定性评估。
参加 NV！工作坊一年后，大多数参与者报告说，性权利意识、果断沟通、性别平等信念转变、减少强奸神话接受度、改善表达的性关系权力、性决策和改善亲密关系中的谈判能力都有所提高。参与者的抑郁症状也显著下降。许多参与者提高了对性侵犯风险的认识和警惕性，包括使用自我保护策略，例如将自己从存在酒精中毒导致性侵犯风险的环境中移除。一些参与者使用果断的沟通来抵制同伴压力，避免参与危险的性行为。大多数参与者在自卫效力量表上得分很高。一些参与者在潜在的性侵犯危险情况下，接触并成功使用了口头和身体抵抗策略。
这些发现表明，NV！作为一种减少校园性暴力风险的干预措施，在干预后一年具有潜在的有益效果，这必须在未来的严格随机对照试验中进行评估。
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04607564，于 2020 年 10 月 29 日注册。
