Partner Violence among Female Students Attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in Emerging Adulthood

ABSTRACT

Studies examining college dating violence to date have focused exclusively on university settings where White students are overrepresented and Black students are limited. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), which have traditionally matriculated Black American students, present a compelling case for study as empirical evidence has shown that Black females experience a higher rate of violence compared to their White counterparts. Using data from the Historically Black College and University Campus Sexual Assault (HBCU-CSA) Study, this study examined contextual and individual factors that were associated with partner violence victimization and perpetration among female undergraduate students attending HBCUs in their emerging adulthood. In sum, our study found a constellation of contextual factors (i.e., residence on campus, community engagement) and individual factors (i.e., depressive symptoms, adverse sexual experience, substance use, condom use, drug use before sex, ever been married) that were associated with partner violence among female undergraduate students attending HBCUs.

KEYWORDS:

• Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
• partner violence
• dating violence
• intimate partner violence
• depressive symptoms

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).