Understanding the Complexities of Campus Protection: A Meta-analysis of Self-defense Programming

• In Event: Institutions and Victimization: Schools and Juvenile Corrections

Abstract

A growing body of research regarding student safety on college campuses has focused on the relationship between self-defense programming and the comprehensive well-being of female students. Fewer inquiries have focused on analyzing the cumulative body of studies surrounding defensive training as a form of protective education. Thus, the current study employs meta-analysis techniques to analyze the relationship between self-defense training and outcomes related to the general feelings of safety, confidence, and assertiveness of college-aged program participants. The results have important implications for understanding the nature of defense-based safety programs on college campuses, and are of particular importance to campus safety officials that are concerned with empirically validated self-defense techniques that protect students’ safety on and off college campuses.

Authors

• Alesha L. J. Cameron, University of Central Florida

• Jennifer Peck, University of Central Florida