# Effectiveness Evaluation of `Step Up Step In? (SUSI): A Campaign to Promote Social Norms against Sexual Violence

> **NIH ALLCDC U01** · GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $372,376

## Abstract

Abstract: Sexual violence (SV) occurs along a continuum of severity ranging from sexual bullying,
harassment, unwanted sexual touching, to completed physical rape.1 Risk for SV victimization begins very
early in life:1-3 by 12th grade, 12% of girls and 4% of boys have been physically raped.2 Rates are higher among
sexual/gender minority youth (SGMY) with 23% of SGMY girls and 10% of SGMY boys reporting rape
victimization. Notably, the majority of adolescent SV victims' perpetrators are their peers4-5 with nearly half of
all victimization occurring on school campuses.5-6 Growing evidence suggests that social norms that condone
bullying and sexual harassment may give rise to the perpetration of more severe forms of SV.75 The “Step Up,
Step In” (SUSI) program, is a social marketing campaign to prevent SV among adolescents. Guided by social
norms theory, the SUSI campaign aims to promote social norms that protect against sexual bullying,
harassment, and SV. SUSI implementation is funded by the Georgia Department of Public Health under
CDC's Rape Prevention and Education (RPE) initiative (RFA-CE19-1902). It has been implemented in 42
schools across 19 counties in Georgia since 2014. However, there have been no evaluations of social
marketing campaigns as SV prevention strategies for adolescents, including the SUSI program. This gap in the
field is critical given the accelerating rate of onset for SV victimization that occurs during and within high
schools.4-6 Given SUSI's current sustained phase of implementation, it is an ideal candidate to evaluate for SV
prevention. We will implement a sequential tri-phased evaluation plan that progresses from formative to
rigorous summative evaluation. Stage 1 (years 1 & 2), we will conduct interviews with students and staff to
assess the clarity, saturation, acceptability, feasibility, buy-in, salience, and reaction to campaign content.
Findings from this phase will inform any revision to SUSI campaign deemed necessary to increase buy-in and
impact on SV for both cis-gender heterosexual and SGMY. We will also conduct quantitative surveys with a
random subsample of students from both SUSI and non-SUSI schools to assess the rates of SGMY, rates of
SV, and rates of dating and sexual behavior. This survey will also assess the current social norms pertaining to
sexual bullying and violence, social norms about SGMY, gender equity, and school climate. Stage 2 (year 3),
we will implement a small pilot evaluation of the SUSI program to obtain estimates of 1) recruitment response
rates, 2) attrition rates, 3) effect sizes, 4) rate of sample shrinkage from propensity score matching. Stage 3
(years 4 and 5), we will implement a full-scale rigorous evaluation of the SUSI program with a cohort of
freshman from 2 intervention and 2 comparison schools. Youth will be surveyed 4 times over 2 years. Because
the SUSI program is in the sustainability phase of implementation, we cannot randomize the intervention. We
will therefore use...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10438169
- **Project number:** 5U01CE003215-03
- **Recipient organization:** GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Dennis Reidy
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $372,376
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-09-30 → 2025-09-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10438169

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10438169, Effectiveness Evaluation of `Step Up Step In? (SUSI): A Campaign to Promote Social Norms against Sexual Violence (5U01CE003215-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10438169. Licensed CC0.

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