Treatment Use Among College Women Following a Campus Shooting

ABSTRACT

Despite increases in campus shootings, there is limited research on treatment utilization after these tragic events. The present study prospectively examined the prevalence and predictors of treatment use among college women following a campus shooting. Predictors included age, race/ethnicity, education level, severity of exposure to shooting, and post-shooting sequelae (i.e., social support, posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] severity, depression severity). Present data were obtained from 516 women on campus at the time of the shooting. They completed electronic and online surveys across three time points – pre-shooting (T1), 1-month post-shooting (T2), and 6-months post-shooting (T3). As expected, few participants (14.4%) sought any treatment. Of note, 77.5% of participants endorsed at least one risk factor for PTSD. Prevalence rates of probable PTSD significantly decreased from 51.8% of the full sample at T2 to 12.9% at T3. Results showed that a significantly higher proportion of participants with probable PTSD at T3 sought treatment than those participants at minimal to no risk for PTSD. Psychotherapy was sought at higher rates than medication or combined treatment across risk groups. No reliable predictors of treatment use were observed for at-risk participants or those with probable PTSD. Research and clinical suggestions for optimizing post-disaster recovery and improving treatment utilization among students following campus shootings are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Adult survivor
• at-risk college students
• campus shooting
• community violence
• logistic regression
• medication
• psychotherapy
• PTSD
• trauma
• treatment
• treatment use
• women

Acknowledgments

We thank participants for their continued contribution to the NIU Trauma Study and the undergraduate and graduate students who contributed to data collection.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that they have no financial conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were approved by the university’s Institutional Review Board. Procedures were also in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent Notifications: The authors declare that there are no informed consent notifications to state.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by grants from the Joyce Foundation, the National Institute for Child and Human Development [1R15HD049907-01A1], and the National Institute of Mental Health [5R21MH085436-02].