The role of social reactions and perceptions of the university’s response to disclosures of sexual violence among college students
Creators: name: Cusano, Julia
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2023

description: Background: College sexual violence (CSV) victimization is associated with mental health issues with more recent research showing that victimization also has a negative impact on academic outcomes. While many universities offer a wide range of both advocacy and supportive services for survivors that can help address the negative impacts of CSV, many students still report not knowing about or feeling capable of accessing them, and research shows that students with marginalized and intersecting marginalized identities utilize these resources at even lower rates. This raises important questions about whether students feel that their institution is supportive of CSV survivors, and particularly, whether those with historically and currently minoritized identities perceive the institution as place where survivors who disclose are supported, a piece often missing in studies of CSV. This dissertation seeks to better understand students’ perceptions of support for CSV disclosures from both their peers and the institution, and how social reactions to disclosures ultimately impact the experience of CSV survivors’ depression and, in turn, academic outcomes.Research Aims: Three primary research aims comprise this dissertation. Research Aim 1 was to examine perceptions of the university’s response to sexual violence disclosures among all students in the sample in an effort to more broadly understand disclosure experiences. Research Aim 2 was to confirm the negative impact that CSV has on a measure of academic outcomes among all students in the sample. Research Aim 3 was to conduct a deeper dive into variations in academic outcomes based upon types of social reactions received among CSV survivors in the sample.Design and Analyses: Data for all three research aims are from a larger campus climate survey that was administered in Fall 2020 on two campuses. For the first Research Aim, a two-step analytic strategy was utilized that included One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) tests followed by post-hoc tests (Tukey HSD) to determine group differences and a series of linear regression analyses. Research Aim 2 was examined by estimating ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models. Lastly, the third Research Aim was tested using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) processes with observed variables. Results: Analyses for Research Aim I show significant main effects for gender identity, F(2, 1089) = 5.49, p &lt; .01, on perception of the university’s response to sexual violence with cismen (M = 4.17, SD = 0.77) perceiving the university as more responsive compared to students with a marginalized gender (M = 3.73, SD = 0.96), p &lt; .01 and ciswomen (M = 4.07, SD = 0.70) perceiving the university as more responsive compared to students with a marginalized gender identity, p &lt; .05. Results from the regression analyses also found that sexual violence survivors, compared to non-survivors, and students who have experienced some form of identity-based discrimination, compared to students who did not experience some form of identity-based discrimination on campus, perceive the university as less responsive to sexual violence disclosures (β= -0.28, p &lt; 0.001).Analyses for Research Aim 2 show that sexual violence victimization since coming to campus remains significant in its association with academic disengagement at p &lt;.001. Lastly, analyses for Research Aim 3 shows that turning against social reactions, a sub-type of negative social reactions, has a relatively strong total effect on depression and positively predicts academic disengagement behaviors indirectly through its relationship with the hypothesized mediating variable of depression. Conclusions: The current study builds upon existing research in the area of CSV in order to gain a more nuanced understanding of the impact of social reactions on collegiate survivors’ healing trajectories, specifically exploring survivors’ academic outcomes. Additionally, the study examined students’ perceptions of the university’s response to CSV disclosures in order to better understand the larger climate which may influence students’ subsequent decisions to disclose. Overall, the study found that negative social reactions to disclosures of sexual violence impact academic disengagement through the hypothesized mediating variable depression. This finding aligns with the broader social reactions literature which finds that negative social reactions are harmful and distressing to survivors. Findings support the need to improve both informal and formal support systems’ response to survivors on campus in order to promote healing and improve survivors’ academic performance. Additionally, the findings from the current study highlight the negative impact that CSV and identity-based discrimination has on students’ perceptions of the university’s response to sexual violence disclosures. It is essential to understand how identity-based harm experienced on campus impacts students’ perceptions of the university’s response and potential ways for the university to improve students’ perceptions in order to increase service utilization and referral to resources among students on campus. Taken together, findings support the need for sexual violence advocacy efforts on campus that directly address the academic needs of collegiate survivors as well as are rooted in empowerment theory.