Perceptions of Anticipated Peer Support for Survivors of Sexual Violence Among Students with Minoritized Identities.

Peers' attitudes toward survivors of sexual violence can impact their willingness to disclose. Students with minoritized identities may perceive and experience their campus environments as less supportive than peers with privileged identities. The purpose of this study was to examine perceptions of anticipated peer support for sexual violence survivors, using a cross-sectional study of 2,727 students. Linear regression modeling showed significant associations between students with minoritized identities and lower scores on perceptions of anticipated peer support for survivors. There were also several important interactions between specific overlapping student identities. The findings suggest that students with minoritized identities perceive anticipated peer support less favorably than those with privileged identities.

Bystander Intervention for the Prevention of Campus Sexual Violence: Opportunity, Frequency of Action, and Consequences for Confronting Those at Risk of Perpetration.

This cross-sectional study examined students' (Campus 1, n = 1,153; Campus 2, n = 1,113) experiences with four situations of direct confrontation of those at risk for sexual assault perpetration. The most reported opportunity was to confront those making false statements about sexual assault; many students reported more than one opportunity to intervene in the past year. Bystanders intervened most of the time across the four situations examined in this study. The most reported consequence of intervening was that no further harm was caused. More nuanced measures can offer practitioners further information to tailor sexual violence prevention programs.

The presence, action, and influence of bystanders who witness sexual harassment against medical students.

PURPOSE: Sexual harassment (SH) is a widespread problem in academia, with a disproportionate impact on female medical students and those who experience marginalization via multiple systems of oppression (e.g. racism, heterosexism). Bystander intervention education is a potential approach which frames violence as a community issue where all members have a role to play in response and prevention. This study assessed the presence and influence of bystanders in SH situations for students at two medical schools. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data came from a larger U.S. campus climate study administered online in 2019 and 2020. The sample included 584 students who responded to validated survey questions about sexual harassment experiences, bystander behavior, disclosure, perceptions of the university response to SH, and demographics. RESULTS: More than one-third of respondents experienced some form of SH by a faculty/staff member. Bystanders were present for more than half of these incidents, yet they rarely intervened. When bystanders intervened, people were more likely to disclose an incident than not. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that there are many missed opportunities for intervention and given the profound impact that SH has on the well-being of medical students, continued work is needed to determine effective intervention and prevention methods.[Box: see text].

Why Do Students Participate in Campus Sexual Assault Climate Surveys?

The purpose of the current study is to explore students' reasons for participating in a campus sexual assault climate survey to determine if patterns exist based on various identities and experiences. More specifically, we were interested in the most frequently reported reasons for participating, and whether they differed by key demographic variables. As part of a campus climate survey administration at two campuses, 4,020 students responded to survey questions asking why they participated in the survey (Sample 1, n = 2,937 and Sample 2, n = 1,083). To examine which demographic variables predicted reasons for taking the survey while controlling for other potential correlates, we conducted logistic regression analyses. The reasons provided by students as to why they completed the campus climate survey differed by identity characteristics, suggesting that researchers must consider the demographic makeup of their institutions when designing sampling and recruitment plans and tailoring them to their student populations. For example, while gender emerged as salient for differing reasons for participation (e.g., women more likely to participate because of the issue's importance and wanting their opinions heard more), intersectional analysis by race and gender indicates that White men (and Asian men, in Sample 1) most consistently indicated different reasons for participation, with significantly greater odds than their White and Asian women counterparts to participate for the cash incentives. This information could help improve the recruitment of representative samples for campus sexual assault surveys and therefore provide more accurate data that can be used to deliver effective intervention and prevention efforts.

Sexual violence prevalence and disclosure patterns among college undergraduates: exploring types of sexual violence and incident-specific characteristics.

Objective: Study explores the role of well-documented individual-level correlates of a range of types of sexual violence among undergraduates and examines both individual-level and incident-level correlates of disclosure patterns to formal and informal sources. Participants: The current study involves the analysis of campus climate data collected in 2018 from 2,271 undergraduate participants. Methods: Descriptive and bivariate analyses are conducted to examine correlates of sexual violence, and a logistic regression model is estimated to examine disclosure by both individual and incident-level correlates. Results: 19% of students experience at least one incident of sexual violence since coming to campus, with many reporting multiple victimizations which differs by race, gender, and sexual orientation. Significant differences found in disclosure based on gender and relationship to who committed the sexual violence. Conclusions: Overall, findings from this study highlight the importance of using a nuanced approach to examining college students' experiences of sexual violence.

Development of the Services, Policies and Programs Audit Tool to Address Campus Sexual Violence.

Evidence suggests that resources to address campus sexual violence (CSV) are inconsistently offered across institutions of higher education (IHE), and thus there is a need for campuses to continually assess their provision of resources and services to improve the climate and well-being of students. Conducting a periodical scan of resources provided is one way for IHE to assess their adherence to best practices. The current study describes the development of the Services, Policies and Programs Audit (SPPA) tool, created to help IHE evaluate their adherence with best practices related to the provision of services, policies, and programs on campus. The tool was piloted with 18 individuals from 12 different IHE across the country. Exploratory evaluation of the SPPA indicates that it may be a useful tool for self-examination of campus policies, services, and prevention and education efforts. Participants from the 12 IHE who participated in the pilot generally reported that the SPPA was helpful to their efforts. Interrater reliability results indicated that the position of the person who completes the tool impacts the scoring, with those who are more familiar with CSV services scoring higher. This aligns with other research indicating that it is important not only to have resources on campus to address CSV but also to ensure that the campus community is aware of them. The SPPA can potentially serve as one part of a larger toolkit used by IHE to assess their efforts to address CSV.

Evaluating Efforts to Address Campus Sexual Violence: Developing a Data Ecosystem.

Sexual violence is well documented as a major problem on college campuses, and the delivery of service and programs at institutions of higher education (IHE) has proliferated over recent years. However, the implementation of these efforts has often outpaced the field's work in developing evaluation models. Many institutions depend on campus climate surveys for data to inform their efforts, yet there are multiple data points that can be accessed to provide a more holistic picture of efforts to address sexual violence on campus. The data ecosystem framework provided by Driver-Linn & Svenson (2017) offers a comprehensive approach for assessing efforts to address campus sexual violence (CSV), but implementation models are needed that connect evaluation and practice, take local context into account, and lead to changes on campus. This paper presents a case study from a multisite university to describe the process of implementing a "data ecosystem" to assess the institutions' efforts to effectively address CSV, and how the data was used by practitioners and administrators. The collaborative, utilization-driven model has provided valuable data to inform the delivery of services and programs across the university yet has limitations and requires a wide range of resources to sustain.

Help-seeking among college survivors of dating and sexual violence: a qualitative exploration of utilization of university-based victim services.

Objective: Study uses qualitative data to examine help-seeking decisions as well as the drivers and barriers to utilization of university-based victim services through the accounts of survivors. Participants: The current study involves the analysis of 33 semi-structured interviews that were conducted with dating and sexual violence (DSV) survivors at a large, Mid-Atlantic University who both did and did not utilize university-based victim services. Methods: Data were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. Results: Analysis shows that while survivors of DSV undergo a process of help-seeking that is similar to those described in previous help-seeking models, there are additional factors that contribute to a reluctancy to seek services at a university-based victim services center in particular that must be accounted for in the literature. Conclusions: The findings from the current study underscore the importance of understanding the specific drivers and barriers to utilization of university-based victim services.

What Helps and Hinders Students' Intervening in Incidents of Dating Violence On Campus? an Exploratory Study Using Focus Groups.

Dating violence is a problem occurring on college campuses that requires unique prevention and intervention needs. Despite the widespread prevalence and pervasive impact of dating violence victimization, formal disclosure and utilization of on-campus support services for student survivors remain low and often survivors who do tell someone disclose to an informal source of support, most often a friend. Many current educational efforts on college campuses regarding dating violence, including bystander intervention programming, fail to increase students' understanding of how to safely address a situation where a peer is experiencing an abusive relationship or to provide students with information about their role as potential responders to disclosures of violence from friends. In the present exploratory study, a series of qualitative focus groups were conducted to better understand students' perspectives on dating violence on campus. Data were analyzed according to processes of thematic analysis to examine how students' understanding and knowledge of dating violence impact their decision about whether to intervene as prosocial bystanders within their social networks using focus groups. Emergent findings reveal that students undergo a multistage process of intervening that relies heavily on their existing knowledge and attitudes toward dating violence. The findings from this article are consistent with Banyard's Action Coils model. Suggestions for future research are also discussed.

Do You Believe Your Partner is Capable of Killing You? An Examination of Female IPV Survivors' Perceptions of Fatality Risk Indicators.

Advocates in the field of intimate partner violence (IPV) have started to more actively engage survivors around their own perceptions of their lethality risk, as well as assist them in developing strategies for reducing and managing risk related to reassault and intimate partner homicide (IPH). Although research has examined the risk factors most associated with risk and utilized this information in the development and validation of risk assessment tools to be used with survivors, less is known about which indicators survivors most associate with lethality risk. This study aims to fill this gap by examining which risk indicators IPV survivors associate with fatality risk. Classification and regression tree analyses were used to differentiate between women who believed their partners were capable of killing them and those who did not. Data on a sample of 213 survivors of IPV used in this analysis were collected as part of a larger study in which a risk assessment instrument was piloted across four counties within New Jersey in 2016. More than three fourths of participants believed that their abuser was capable of killing them. Alhough the majority of survivors in the study felt as though their abusers were capable of killing them, there was variation in how survivors prioritized risk indicators. Factors associated with fatality risk included: (a) prior homicide threats; (b) whether the abusers had control over survivors' daily activities; (c) abusers' access to a gun; and (d) abusers' drug use. Findings suggest that IPV survivors need targeted intervention strategies around IPH, particularly those at higher perceived risk levels given the presence of risk indicators and their perceptions of lethality threat.

Exposure to Campus Messages about Dating and Sexual Violence: A Latent Class Analysis.

This study investigates college students' exposure to messages about campus dating and sexual violence (DSV) to discover classes of students based on the message source. Latent class analysis was performed with data assessing 5,284 students' exposure to 16 different sources of information regarding DSV, from having a professor discuss these topics to participating in related campus events. Several variables were included in the analysis to understand students' class membership in relation to pertinent student demographic factors. The best model indicated that there are five classes of students based on their exposure to messages, with some subgroups of students having high exposure to various sources of messages about DSV while others have low exposure. Still other subgroups are primarily exposed to messages through nonactive or noninstitutional sources of information. Subgroups of students, based on their exposure to DSV messaging, also differ regarding demographic makeup. The implications from these results include the need to tailor DSV programming on campus to subgroups of students based on their varying baseline levels of message exposure. As students are exposed to messaging through differing sources, including passive and noninstitutional, institutions can use this information when designing outreach efforts to better fit with the needs of various subgroups of students.

The Impact of Campus-Level Factors on Peers' Perceived Ability to Support a Survivor.

Campus sexual violence is a complex issue that has led to a proliferation of federal legislation and best practices with the intent to better support student survivors. Despite these efforts, research suggests that many survivors do not disclose to formal resources on campus, but rather, to their peers. While there is growing theoretical and empirical support for the role of peer-level influences on both preventing and responding to sexual violence on college campuses, our understanding of students' confidence in knowing how to respond is limited. Furthermore, disclosure research has yet to assess the impact of broader campus-level factors on students' confidence in being able to support survivors. In the present exploratory study, undergraduate students responded to a survey, which included questions about receiving disclosures and perceived ability to respond as well as measures of individual-level correlates (gender, race, prior victimization) and campus community factors (perceptions of the university's responsiveness, exposure to information, awareness of resources). Bivariate analyses were conducted to examine whether certain students were more likely to receive a disclosure on campus. To look at the impact of individual- and community-level factors, a series of hierarchical logistic regression models were estimated. Ability to respond to a disclosure was measured using three separate dichotomous variables. Findings show that 34% of our sample has received at least one disclosure of sexual violence from a peer since coming to campus. In addition, results show that above and beyond individual correlates, campus-level factors impacted students' confidence in their roles as disclosure recipients. These results have significant implications for sexual violence programs on campus. Suggestions for future research are also discussed.

Campus Sexual Assault: Future Directions for Research.

Campus sexual assault (CSA) has received unprecedented attention over recent years, resulting in an abundance of federal guidance and mandates. In response, efforts to address and prevent CSA at Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) across the country have grown quickly, including the development and implementation of programs and policies. Because the changes on campuses have occurred at such a rapid pace, a number of gaps exist within the field of CSA research. To ensure that changes on IHE are evidence-based, there is a need to review the existing research available and the inquiry still needed, based on key areas outlined in federal guidance, the expressed needs of campus community members, survivors, and students who commit sexual offenses on college campuses. The purpose of this review is to summarize the empirical research related to CSA gained from the past two decades and identify areas in which further work is needed, specifically related to key areas identified in recent guidance provided to IHE. This article concludes with guidance for research moving forward to help strengthen response and prevention efforts.