University of New Hampshire Receives Grant to Develop Sexual Assault Prevention Video Game

Prevention Innovations, a research and training unit operated by the University of New Hampshire, is focused on developing programs and strategies to reduce sexual violence on college campuses. The group has developed the Bringing in the Bystander In-Person Prevention Program and the Know Your Power Bystander Social Marketing Campaign.

Now Prevention Innovations has received a two-year, $579,301 grant from the National Institute of Justice to develop a video game that can be used to support its bystander prevention programs. The new video game, in which players will be presented with situations that let them learn and practice active bystander skills, will be developed in conjunction with the Tiltfactor Laboratory at Dartmouth College.

Sharyn J. Potter, an associate professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire and co-director of Prevention Innovations, is the principal investigator of the grant project. She expects a prototype of the game to ready in 2016. First they plan to conduct research. “We need to go to our target audience and make sure we’re doing this right,” Dr. Potter explains. “We’ve found that if the scenario doesn’t look like a party they would go to on a Saturday night, the intervention is not effective. It really has to resonate with college students, or there’s no sense in doing this.”

Dr. Potter is a graduate of the University at Albany of the State University of New York System. She holds a master of public health degree and a Ph.D. in medical sociology from Emory University in Atlanta.