Health and academic consequences of sexual victimisation experiences among students in a university setting

ABSTRACT

The current study examines the association between multiple interpersonal violence victimisation types experienced in a university setting and the consequences for each type. Students at a mid-Atlantic university (n = 3977) completed a survey in 2015 assessing attitudes, experiences, consequences of (physical, behavioural, academic, mental), and university resources and reporting procedures for sexual assault, harassment and intimate partner violence. Effect on mental health was the most cited consequence for all victimisation types. Sexual harassment was reported by the largest number of students but with smaller percentages of students reporting consequences, while the opposite was true for sexual assault and multiple forms of abuse (smaller numbers experiencing; larger percentages reporting consequences). In the adjusted models, being in an abusive/controlling relationship and sexual harassment were significantly associated with physical health consequences (ps < .001). Sexual harassment was the only predictor of substance use (p < .001). Being an undergraduate and experiencing an abusive/controlling relationship, sexual harassment or assault were associated with sexual risk behaviour (all ps < .05). These findings point to a need for holistic approaches to helping students heal from interpersonal victimisation – approaches that include mental health services, attention to increased substance use and sexual risk, and monitoring academic performance.

KEYWORDS:

• Interpersonal violence
• sexual assault
• sexual harassment
• mental health
• sexual risk behaviour

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Research demonstrates that substance use and sexual risk behaviours are common predecessors and justifiable coping mechanisms for interpersonal victimisation, resulting in a reciprocal relationship (see Brener, Collins, Kann, Warren, & Williams, 1995; Brener et al., 1999; Combs-Lane & Smith, 2002; Gidycz, Orchowski, King, & Rich, 2008; Kilpatrick et al., 1997; Reed, Amaro, Matsumoto, & Kaysen, 2009).

2. Unless where otherwise specified, all measures (including single-item measures) were used previously in similar campus sexual assault studies (e.g. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Johns Hopkins University Provost Office. Bushra Sabri was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health & Human Development (K99HD082350). The funding sources had no involvement in the study design, collection, analysis, interpretation of the data, writing of the report, nor the decision to submit the article for publication.

Notes on contributors

Michelle R. Kaufman

Michelle R. Kaufman, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health, Behavior & Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She studies how interpersonal relationships and social factors contribute to health disparities, and how behavior change interventions can mitigate these factors. Her work focuses primarily on how gender roles, sexuality, and social status put individuals at risk for poor health outcomes. Her work spans several continents, with current and past projects in the U.S., Nepal, South Africa, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Cote d’Ivoire, and Indonesia.

Samantha W. Tsang

Samantha W. Tsang,MSPH, is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Most of her current and past research has examined how social and behavior change communication is utilized to improve various health outcomes in countries across the world, including the US, Tanzania, Malawi, Namibia, Madagascar, Benin, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. She is also interested in how new and emerging technology and social media is changing and can change health outcomes, especially sexual and reproductive health-related outcomes.

Bushra Sabri

Bushra Sabri, MSW, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. She has extensive cross-cultural and cross-national experiences in health care and social service settings. She has conducted multiple studies on interpersonal violence across the life span including sexual and intimate partner violence, and health outcomes of violence. Her research focuses on the intersections of violence, mental health, substance use, reproductive health, and HIV/STIs among women, coping and adaptation to violence and other traumatic events, and development and testing of trauma-informed culturally tailored interventions for survivors of violence and trauma, particularly among those from marginalized groups.

Chakra Budhathoki

Chakra Budhathoki, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. He is a broadly trained applied statistician, an expert in the design, analysis, and reporting of both experimental research and observational studies. He has worked as a biostatistician with biomedical researchers in heart failure and HIV/AIDS studies, and with nursing researchers on various topics. He also provides statistical consulting services to faculty and doctoral student researchers.

Jacquelyn Campbell

Jacquelyn Campbell, PhD, RN is Anna D. Wolf Chair and Professor in the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. Dr. Campbell has published more than 250 articles, seven books and been Principal Investigator of more than 12 major NIH, CDC and NIJ grants in her decades of advocacy policy work collaborating with domestic violence survivors, advocates, health care professionals and marginalized communities. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Nursing, on the Board of Futures Without Violence, and has consulted for NIH and NGOs on the intersection of gender-based violence and health outcomes.