Youth Engagement in Sexual Violence Prevention Programs and Research: A Systematic Review

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is an excellent piece of work. I appreciate the author's meticulous articulation of the introduction, methods, findings, discussion, and conclusion sections of the paper. I also greatly appreciate the explanation of CBPR and prevention science. However, I wonder whether it would be helpful to include a more detailed explanation of prevention science as a framework to underpin your work or another theoretical framework that could help understand youth engagement in sexual violence prevention. 

Author Response

Comment 1: This is an excellent piece of work. I appreciate the author's meticulous articulation of the introduction, methods, findings, discussion, and conclusion sections of the paper. I also greatly appreciate the explanation of CBPR and prevention science. However, I wonder whether it would be helpful to include a more detailed explanation of prevention science as a framework to underpin your work or another theoretical framework that could help understand youth engagement in sexual violence prevention. 

Response to Comment 1: More detail was provided to clarify the connections between the goals of participatory approaches and the prevention science field and specify why prevention as a field is a fitting setting for community-engaged methods. These additions help explain the context for this systematic review and the possibilities of community-engaged methods in violence prevention efforts. Additions and revisions to this section can be found on pg. 4 of the manuscript under the section titled "Participatory approaches and prevention science".

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thank you for the opportunity to engage with this manuscript. I have found the systematic review to be sound and the results to provide a clear agenda for future youth-focused sexual violence research and interventions. 

The limitations of the review are clearly articulated and provide transparency to the reader. 

The manuscript provides crucial background on the topic of sexual violence prevention programs in the US, and sets the reader up by situating the potential barriers to research that is not youth-led. 

The manuscript provides a welcome agenda-setting position that is authoritative and well-rounded, as well as being clear and simple. The argument of the paper is logical throughout.

In my view, the manuscript makes a worthy contribution to the journal.

Author Response

Comment 1: Thank you for the opportunity to engage with this manuscript. I have found the systematic review to be sound and the results to provide a clear agenda for future youth-focused sexual violence research and interventions. The limitations of the review are clearly articulated and provide transparency to the reader. The manuscript provides crucial background on the topic of sexual violence prevention programs in the US, and sets the reader up by situating the potential barriers to research that is not youth-led. The manuscript provides a welcome agenda-setting position that is authoritative and well-rounded, as well as being clear and simple. The argument of the paper is logical throughout. In my view, the manuscript makes a worthy contribution to the journal.

Response to Comment 1: Thank you for your praise of this manuscript. No revisions or additions were made in response to this comment.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

It makes sense to review “articles that involved high school youth or younger as more than data, focused on adolescent sexual or dating violence prevention”,  but I did wonder at first why you would limit the study to the USA? It seemed a pity in terms of good practice elsewhere not being discussed, but then the defence of this made sense to me and it did offer a way of making the review manageable. I was fully convinced by the rationale for it, about contextual consistency.

The Abstract is clear and succinct.

 The initial claims about prevalence I do not doubt but it’s a pity not to have more recent data to support this point. Is there nothing later than 2015?

The study is well justified: a review of participatory methods used specifically in adolescent sexual violence prevention, rather than community violence like bullying or crime. Good acknowledgement of the study limitations included terms selected for searching.

I have no suggestions that I think would improve the review. I find it very well written, pleasantly concise and informative in the way it draws out some suggestions for practice. They do indeed apply to both interventions and research practice.

Author Response

Comment 1: It makes sense to review “articles that involved high school youth or younger as more than data, focused on adolescent sexual or dating violence prevention”,  but I did wonder at first why you would limit the study to the USA? It seemed a pity in terms of good practice elsewhere not being discussed, but then the defense of this made sense to me and it did offer a way of making the review manageable. I was fully convinced by the rationale for it, about contextual consistency.

Response to Comment 1: Agreed, limiting the scope to the US does exclude many impactful studies and programs that readers can learn from. However, as Reviewer 3 stated, this choice was appropriate due to the unique political and social context of the US. I hope that future systematic reviews can explore and contrast programs and approaches on an international scale.

 

Comment 2: The initial claims about prevalence I do not doubt but it’s a pity not to have more recent data to support this point. Is there nothing later than 2015?

Response to Comment 2: Thank you for this comment. I was able to locate more recent data about sexual violence prevalence among adolescents in the US and have added an additional report (that was published in 2020, citation #84) using data gathered in 2019 from the National Youth Risk Behavioral Survey. It is important (and disheartening) to note that the 2020 publication on the 2019 YRBS data reports similar incidence rates as the 2018 publication (citation #2) that uses 2015 YRPS data. To my knowledge, there have been more recent data collected from this survey on sexual violence since 2019, though no reports have been published an update or changes in incidence. This points to another urgent need in the sexual violence prevention field.

 

Comment 3: The study is well justified: a review of participatory methods used specifically in adolescent sexual violence prevention, rather than community violence like bullying or crime. Good acknowledgement of the study limitations included terms selected for searching. I have no suggestions that I think would improve the review. I find it very well written, pleasantly concise and informative in the way it draws out some suggestions for practice. They do indeed apply to both interventions and research practice.

Response to Comment 3: Thank you for this praise of the manuscript. No additions or revisions were made in response to this comment.