The Development of an Instagram Reel-Based Bystander Intervention Message Among College Students: Formative Survey and Mixed Methods Pilot Study.

Background: Bystander intervention is a common method to address the ubiquitous issue that is sexual violence across college campuses. Short messages that incentivize bystander intervention behavior can be another tool to fight sexual violence.

Objective: This study aimed to conduct formative research surrounding social norms and bystander barriers to pilot and develop Instagram (Meta) reel-based messages addressing bystander intervention among college students.

Methods: The first step was to conduct a formative survey to identify peer norms and actual behavior of the intended population. Once that data were collected, a mixed methods message pilot was conducted by a survey where participants randomly saw 5 of the 12 messages developed, assessing them for credibility, perceived message effect, and intended audience.

Results: The formative survey was conducted among 195 college students from the same institution, and the pilot test was conducted among 107 college students. The formative survey indicated a discrepancy between perceived peer behavior and actual behavior of the participants in all 3 measures, allowing for the development of normative messaging. The pilot testing indicated the credibility was acceptable (eg, mean 3.94, SD 1.15 on a 5-point scale) as well as the perceived message effect (eg, mean 4.26, SD 0.94 on a 5-point scale). Intended audiences were also identified and reached. Qualitative results indicated that the messages may have lacked credibility, although the quantitative results suggest otherwise.

Conclusions: Participants understood the messages concerned bystander intervention, and perceived message effects results indicated the messages to be effective in assisting bystander intervention engagement by normative messaging. Messages were considered credible and reached the intended audience. The qualitative results provided further insights on how the messages can be adapted before being tested for effects. Future research should focus on further adapting the messages and testing their effects among the studied population.