Prevention is Possible Study


PIP logo, a growing sprouted seed

What is the Prevention Is Possible Study?

In August and September 2021, first-year, degree-seeking KU students were invited to participate in the Prevention is Possible: A Sexual Violence Cohort Study, an online survey.  

The study’s outcomes of interest are to increase:

  1. Social norms that protect against violence
  2. Skills to prevent sexual violence
  3. Opportunities to empower and support girls and women,
  4. Protective environments
  5. Support for victims/survivors to lessen harm.  

These outcomes mirror the five strategies for preventing and reducing sexual violence developed by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control within the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Basile et al., 2016).

The PIP Study has received funding from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. For more information, contact Dr. Juliana Carlson at jmcarlson@ku.edu, co-PI of the PIP Study. 

PIP logo progression. A seedling grows into a plant with roots over four years.

More about the PIP Study

  • If eligible, students will receive an email invitation to complete the participant survey. Survey links will be emailed at the beginning of each Fall Semester for the duration of the study. 

  • The PIP sampling frame is KU degree-seeking Lawrence campus students who are in the classes of 2025 (first survey in Fall 2021) and 2026 (first survey in Fall 2022). The study will follow the classes over their time at KU with four annual surveys administered at the start of each Fall semester. 

Information and findings from the study will be shared regularly as data are collected and analyzed. Findings from the study will be shared in a variety of mediums including reports, presentations, and social media summaries. This page will be updated regularly as documents and more information become available. 

Identifying rates of sexual violence at KU is not the purpose of the PIP study. Rather, the primary goal of the study is to increase post-secondary institutions’ adoption of a comprehensive, gender-centered public health framework to sexual assault campus policy and prevention strategies. Sexual Assault Prevention and Education Center uses a community-level focused and public health framework approach, designed to build and strengthen institutional level capacity and momentum to strategically change, prevent, and respond to sexual assault at the University of Kansas. 

The Sexual Assault and Prevention Center (SAPEC) at the University of Kansas (KU) seeks to build and strengthen institutional level capacity and momentum to strategically prevent and respond to sexual assault at the University. As part of this work, SAPEC conducts evaluation of its prevention programming to assess its impact on students. The Prevention is Possible Study is one of SAPEC’s evaluation-based efforts. 

A pip is a small seed or plant, which is what is shown in the study’s logo. Given that the title of the study, Prevention is Possible can be abbreviated as “PIP” it was fitting that the logo be a growing pip. As the study progresses over the next 4 years, our knowledge of prevention work at KU will grow and the logo will “grow” overtime to reflect this.  

Our former student employee, Faith Maddox designed the PIP logo and its progression at the top of the page.