The Likelihood of Experiencing Violence Among a University Sample: Exploring Length of Enrollment, Campus Resource Utilization, Residence and Social

ExperiencesLaura L. Talbott-Forbes1, PhD, MCHES; Jonathan C. Davis, PhD, LMFT2; Larrell L. Wilkinson1, PhD, MSPH, CHES; Tiffani Kennedy1, BA;

Jessica L. Altice, MAEd1

1University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of Human Studies, 2 Samford University, Department of Human Development and Family Life Education

Discussion/Implications

• Collaboration with the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Planning was extremely important to the collection of this data and provided access to the student population.

• A substantial number of students know someone who has been a victim or perpetrator of power-based personal violence.

• We were not able to asses if the aforementioned victims or perpetrators were students as well. Additional research needs to be done in this area.

• Students appear to be concerned about personal safety and have taken measures to protect themselves while on campus. Programming geared towards teaching students how to safely protect themselves could be beneficial.

• College health professionals should implement power-based violence educational and prevention interventions.

• Define power based personal violence.

• Identify safety precautions students take while on campus.

• Explore prevalence of dating violence and sexual assault among student population.

• Explain how results may be applied.

Learning Objectives

Data Collection Methods• A sample of 2,000 students was generated based on

Spring 2014 enrollment data.

• The sample was based on gender demographics for the current undergraduate population which was 58% female and 42% male.

• The 2,000 students were sent email requests over a two week period. Additionally, the requests were sent out in groups of 100 to prevent being flagged as SPAM.

• The campus climate survey was administered online in the Summer of 2014 via Qualtrics, an online survey data collection tool.

• The campus climate survey was constructed based on multiple psychometrically sound instruments (i.e., Sexual Experiences Questionnaire, Adverse Childhood Experiences Study) and were guided by the White House Taskforce to Protect Students from Sexual Assault (www.notalone.gov).

• Participation in the study was completely voluntary and participants were allowed to stop the survey at any time.

• University IRB approved this research protocol.

Perception of Violence• 18.1% of students believe they will experience power-

based personal violence in their lifetime• 28.9% of students think alcohol and drug abuse cause

most dating violence• 17.2% of students believe some violence is caused by the

way women treat men

Data from students completing the survey (N=204) related to the 2013-2014 school year.

Dating Violence• 17.7% of students had experienced dating violence prior

to the 2013-2014 school year• Of the abovementioned students, 8% of them were

enrolled at UAB at the time the violence occurred• 42.2% of students knew someone else who experienced

violence from a dating partner• 25.5 of students knew someone who had been a

perpetrator of dating violence

Sexual Assault• 14.7% of students were sexually assaulted prior to the

2013-2014 school year• Of the abovementioned students, 6.4% of them were

enrolled at UAB at the time of the assault• 24.4% of students knew someone else who had been

sexually assaulted• 13.2% of students knew someone who was a perpetrator

of sexual assault

Descriptive Statistics

• Power-based personal violence is any form of violence that has a primary motivator of the assertion of power, control, and/or intimidation to harm another person. The types of power-based personal violence include stalking, dating violence, and sexual assault.

• Women aged 16 to 24 experience intimate partner violence at higher rates than other age groups (DOJ, 2000).

• One in four college women report surviving rape or attempted rape at some point in their lifetime (Fisher, Cullen & Turner, 2000; Tjaden & Thoennes, 2006).

• 12.7 million people are raped, physically abused, or stalked by their partners in one year (No More, 2015).

• The purpose of this poster is to enable the learner to distinguish between different types of power-based personal violence, focus on students’ experiences with violence, safety measures taken by students, and to share how findings may be applied to participant’s home institutions.

Introduction

Results

Alabama Statistics

• Of all violent offenses reported in Alabama, 16% (3,186) were domestic violence incidents (Alabama Criminal Justice, 2013).

• In 2013, Jefferson county reported 5 homicides, 35 rapes, 19 robberies, 496 aggravated assaults, and 4,743 assaults related to domestic violence (Alabama Criminal Justice, 2013).

• Alabama reported 1,978 rapes in 2013 and 213 of those rapes were domestic violence rapes (Alabama Criminal Justice, 2013).

Graph 1. Personal safety items carried by students in order to reduce risk of violence on campus

Mace Pepper Spray

Personal Alarm

Keys Knife Stun Gun

Gun0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

Personal Safety Items Used

Students