If a friend tells you that they’ve had an unwanted sexual experience, would you know how to respond? Often, people want to be supportive, but aren’t sure what to do. We wanted to create a resource that gives sorority members tools to support each other around this topic—from initial conversations to continuing to grow together in the long-term. We know every group is different, so the resource includes feedback that’s specific to each person and chapter.

We developed an online resource in collaboration with students and campus stakeholders. This training takes around 45 minutes to complete, but you can go through this resource at your own pace, in a space that is most comfortable for you.

The training is designed for all sorority members—even if you don’t know someone who has had an unwanted sexual experience. If you’ve been invited to participate, we hope you will!

Only some sorority chapters will be randomly assigned to complete the training. If you do not receive the training during the research study, you will have an opportunity to see the training after participating.

To help evaluate the training, members of participating sorority chapters are asked to complete 5 online surveys over the course of 7 months. The surveys take between 15 to 45 minutes each and can be completed on a phone or computer.

Confidentiality and privacy are very important to us. All survey responses are kept confidential within the research team. The one exception is if we learn about a serious risk to the safety of yourself or someone else. In that case, we may need to take steps to ensure everyone’s safety.

No—survey responses are only identified by a randomly generated PIN (personalized identification number). Your PIN is kept separate from your personal information, so that none of your answers can be linked to anything that might identify you.

In some of the surveys, you will see a list of names for other sorority members in your chapter. This will be used to gather information on the connections in the sorority. Keep in mind that this data is also secure—even though you can see names while completing the survey, only corresponding PINs are saved in the dataset.

By participating, you’d be contributing to research that’s designed to help sorority members. You might also learn more about yourself and your chapter too!

Yes! Each chapter that opts in to this research study will receive $500. Each individual member who participates can earn up to $150 in Amazon e-gift cards.

This project is funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

The lead investigator of this study, Dr. Anna Jaffe, is a licensed clinical psychologist and an Associate Professor at the University of Washington. Learn more about our team here. All procedures for this study have also been reviewed and approved by the University of Washington Human Subjects Division.

If you’d like to learn more about the study, reach out to us at assist-sororities@uw.edu.