“What would the neighbors do?” Measuring sexual and domestic violence prevention social norms among youth and adults

Abstract

There is growing attention to how social processes in communities may contribute to domestic and sexual violence (DSV) and be a target for prevention efforts. Three main variables are collective efficacy and descriptive and injunctive norms. To date, few measures exist that assess these variables in the specific context of violence prevention. The current study sampled 3,866 adults and high-school youth in four communities in northern New England. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses examined the psychometrics of the scales. Scales reflecting collective efficacy, indirect public, and direct individualized descriptive norms, public and personal injunctive norms, and youth perceptions of adults' prevention actions demonstrated robust factor structures and adequate reliability and validity. These measures may prove useful for a diverse audience (e.g., practitioner, researchers) for assessing the effectiveness of community-level DSV prevention strategies.