Is Anyone Listening? Examining Students’ Perceptions of and Experiences with Interpersonal Violence on College and University Campuses

• In Event: Qualitative and Quantitative Research on Intimate Partner Violence, Interpersonal Violence, Peer Influence, and Deviant Modeling

Abstract

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional students are in the age groups at highest risk for interpersonal violence (Coker, Sanderson, Cantu, Huerta & Fadden, 2008; Ramirez, 2007; Smith, Thompson, Tomaka, & Buchanan, 2006). This study reports on a non-probability availability quantitative sample of 421 questionnaires, and a qualitative sample of fifteen (15) one-on-one in-depth interviews from students who attended a college or university in the Washington Metropolitan area during the 2015-2016 academic year. The study explored students’ perceptions of and experiences with physical, psychological, economic, verbal, and spiritual/religious abuses, sexual assault and stalking. The data evaluated the prevalence of interpersonal violence, type of violence students experienced, and whether the victim made a report of the incident. Albert Bandura’s social learning theory provided a theoretical basis for why people either become perpetrators, or victims of on-campus interpersonal violence through a discussion of its four tenets: (1) differential association, (2) definitions, (3) differential reinforcement, and (4) imitation. Assessing students’ perceptions of and experiences with interpersonal violence promised to provide a more comprehensive picture of interpersonal violence on college and university campuses. Based on the results, colleges and universities could revise current programs and initiatives, in order to effectively address on-campus interpersonal violence.

Author

• Candice Hodge, Howard University