The purpose of this study was to evaluate an empathy-based model of sexual assault prevention. The literature demonstrated alarming incidence rates of sexual assault on college campuses and the problem does not appear to be dissipating. There has also been little empirical evaluation of integrated theoretical models of sexual assault prevention. This study was designed to evaluate an integrated model whereby empathy was viewed as a mediating factor between prevention programming and attitudinal change, and social conformity was a moderating factor between attitude and sexually aggressive behaviors. Another purpose of this study was to replicate a previous prevention program evaluation (Foubert, 2000). This study used the Men's Program, a 1-hour male peer-presented prevention program designed to educate men regarding sexual assault using a video depiction of a sexual assault, lecture, and discussion of factors relating to sexual assault. This study was designed to evaluate the program's impact on rape myth acceptance, general and victim empathy, self-reported likelihood of raping, social conformity, and self-reported sexually aggressive behavior. Participants included 163 fraternity members on a midwestern university campus. Results demonstrated that the Men's Program decreased rape myth acceptance and social conformity, and increased empathy for victims; however those changes were not maintained at 7-month followup. Due to the lack of differences at followup the empathy-based model was not fully evaluated. The present findings did not fully replicate the findings of Foubert's study, which may have been due to modifications made to Foubert's study. Those modifications included changes to the program, experimental design, measurement of outcome variables, and statistical design. The implications of these modifications to the replication were discussed, but conclusions were limited. The findings of the study also need to be viewed with caution due to several limitations of the study. The limitations included design problems resulting in decreased power and omission of an immediate posttest, in addition to the presence of measurement effects. Due to the limitations, conclusions regarding the efficacy of the Men's Program were restricted. Suggestions for future research were offered including the continued assessment of prevention program efficacy and identification of constructs related to sexual assault.
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