Mindful Continuing Education

1. Sexual violence (SV), a serious public health problem that affects millions of people each year, involves a range of acts including attempted or completed forced or alcohol/drug facilitated penetration, being made to penetrate someone else, verbal pressure that results in unwanted penetration, unwanted sexual contact, and non-contact unwanted sexual experiences.

2. While less is known about protective factors that decrease or buffer the risk for SV, evidence suggests that such factors may include greater empathy, emotional health and connectedness, having parents who use reasoning to resolve family conflicts, and:

3. Although compared to other types of violence and other public health topics, the research base for SV prevention is less developed, there is promising evidence that brief, one-session educational programs aimed at raising awareness and knowledge about SV work effectively to prevent SV perpetration.

4. STOP SV strategies include promoting norms that protect against violence, teaching skills to prevent sexual violence, providing opportunities to empower and support girls and women, creating protective environments, and supporting victims and survivors.

5. When gender norms become so extremely rigid about the appropriate roles and behavior of men and women that they can serve to support or condone violence, they are referred to as:

6. Experimental evaluations show that bystander programs may empower young people to intervene in their peer groups in each of the following ways EXCEPT:

7. Several programs that focus on engaging men and boys as allies, modeling positive masculinity, and changing social and peer-group norms related to relationships, violence, and sexuality have been rigorously evaluated and proven to be effective, particularly in reducing sexual harassment and stalking victimization.

8. Numerous individual skills are associated with preventing SV, including healthy dating and intimate relationship skills, skills related to healthy sexuality, empowerment skills, and social-emotional learning skills such as conflict management, communication, and

9. Comprehensive sex education programs have been shown to reduce high risk sexual behavior, a clear risk factor for SV victimization and perpetration.

10. Which of the following is an accurate statement about the rationale for empowering and supporting girls and women to prevent sexual violence?

11. Given the links between gender inequality, low SES, educational and occupational status of women, and risk for SV, programs that build confidence, knowledge, and leadership skills in young women can contribute to the status and influence of women in society, potentially reducing vulnerability to sexual violence.

12. Evidence suggests that the approaches with the greatest promise for modifying community-level characteristics associated with SV include improving safety and monitoring throughout the community, establishing and consistently applying law enforcement policies, and assessing school-level risks through environmental approaches.

13. Since violence victimization, exposure, and other trauma can have long-term effects on survivors and lead to risk of later SV, experts recommend reducing harms and promoting better outcomes by using evidence-based therapeutic techniques and:

14. Two therapeutic modalities that show particular promise for victims of SV, who often show evidence of continued effects at long-term follow-up, include Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PET), which have been associated with sustained improvements in PTSD and depression symptoms.

15. Agencies and sectors that can play a vital and unique role in addressing and preventing sexual violence include public health, education, government, social services, health services, business/labor, justice, as well as organizations that comprise the civil society sector.