Effect of Sexual Violence Bystander Training in High Schools on Adolescent Pregnancy Rates

Experiencing sexual violence is associated with a significantly increased risk of adolescent pregnancy. The Green Dot bystander intervention training reduced sexual violence (SV) perpetration and victimization in a large high school-based randomized control trial (RCT). The purpose of this paper was to investigate the efficacy of Green Dot training in reducing pregnancy rates among female and male students participating in this RCT.

Across the four years of the bystander intervention, 63,320 students completed annual surveys. Students’ reports of being or causing pregnancy in the past 12 months (4.0%; n = 2,560) were significantly times higher, 5 to 7-fold, for those disclosing SV victimization or perpetration, respectively. The effect of bystander intervention training was analyzed ‘as randomized’ and ‘as reported’ with self-reported, 12-month pregnancy rates as the primary outcome.

When Green Dot was fully implemented in the last two years of the RCT, this intervention was associated with a modest yet not significant reduction in pregnancy rates (aRR = 0.89; 95% CI:0.77–1.03; ‘as randomized analyses’). Reported receipt of Green Dot training was associated with a 33% reduction in pregnancy rates (aRR = 0.77; 95% CI: 0.64–0.91; p = .01) and this pattern was more pronounced in the latter two years of the RCT (aRR = 0.68; 95%CI: 0.54–0.86).

Green Dot training did reduce sexual violence perpetration and victimization, and this training appears to additionally reduce pregnancy rates over time.