Empowerment Self-Defense Training in a Community Population

Abstract

Nearly all research on the effects of women’s self-defense training examines college age or, less frequently, adolescent populations. This study broadens that focus by evaluating the effectiveness of self-defense training for an adult community population, ages 18–77 years, comparing students who completed a 9-hr community-based empowerment self-defense course to similar women who did not take the course. Participants who completed the empowerment self-defense course reported significantly less sexual assault at the 1-year follow-up as well as significantly greater self-defense self-efficacy, more accurate knowledge about sexual assault and the possibility of resistance, and less self-silencing than those who did not take the course. This research provides the first systematic evidence that empowerment self-defense training can be effective in preventing assault in adult populations outside of educational contexts. Empowerment self-defense training is therefore an important part of sexual assault prevention efforts. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/0361684319897937