Social Norms antiviolence survey and the beginnings of a social norms poster campaign at the University of IL at Chicago

The Office of Women's Affairs/Campus Advocacy Network (OWA) conducted an Antiviolence Social Norms Study in the fall of 2006. The purpose of this study was to collect survey data on the attitudes and behaviors of UIC students regarding sexual assault (SA), dating violence (DV), and stalking, as well as their reactions as bystanders to such behaviors. In general, the function of a social norms campaign is to identify social norms and/or perceptions of a group's behaviors that are different from the actual behaviors of the individuals in that group. Recent studies document that misperceptions of risky behaviors are positively correlated to a person engaging in that behavior (such as binge drinking and tobacco use) (Berkowitz, 2003). Our hypothesis is that students will overestimate the percentage of their peers engaging in SA, DV, stalking, and bystander behaviors compared to students' own reported behaviors. Approximately 1886 UIC students completed the survey. Students were recruited through UIC mass mail, various list-serves, and class sessions. Surveys were administered via Survey Monkey, a secure, online data collection website. The data was analyzed primarily using descriptive statistics, mean of all males vs. mean of individual males and mean of all students vs. means of individual students. The results collected have aided OWA with the development of an Antiviolence Poster Campaign for UIC's campus. For this presentation we will evaluate the results of the survey and make recommendations for future social norms antiviolence poster campaigns.