This report was prepared for the Australian Football League (AFL) by the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University.

This report was commissioned by the Australian Football League to inform the development of training programs that will be delivered as part of their Respect & Responsibility Program (one aspect of the Australian Football League's commitment to making all football clubs safe, supportive and inclusive environments for women and girls). The report is based on a literature review exploring best practice principles and contemporary approaches to adult learning and behaviour change in gender-based violence prevention. The review focused on professional sport and other settings, including those using peer mentoring approaches. The literature shows that behaviour change education with men is one of the emerging areas of violence prevention. Efforts have been made in particular institutional and cultural contexts, including college fraternities, sports, and the military. Research has also begun to identify the factors associated with violence-supportive norms and behaviours. For example, sexist peer norms and cultures are a key risk factor for men's perpetration of sexual violence. The review discusses adult learning principles, and presents several theoretical models for attitude and behaviour change which may also be appropriate for adult learning. Knowledge about what works is limited by minimal and poor quality evaluation; however, where education programs have been evaluated, they show mixed results. The report identifies five key features that contribute to effective violence prevention programs among men, and three main frameworks are identified as potentially being applicable to the goals of the Australian Football League's Respect and Responsibility Program. The report contains a summary of principles that are characteristic of good practice in adult behaviour change and violence prevention programs with men.

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