International Students and Endorsement of Sexually Coercive Behaviors

• In Event: The Victimization of Young Adults on University/College Campuses

Abstract

Sexual victimization is a pervasive issue on college campuses across the United States. A systematic review conducted by Fedina and colleagues (2018) identified unwanted sexual contact and sexual coercion as the most prevalent forms of sexual victimization experienced by college students. College students coming from different cultural settings might differ in terms of behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes regarding sexual coercion. As evidence, prior research speculates that international students are more prone to endorsing rape myths as compared to domestic students (Scholl et al., 2019). Additionally, a qualitative study on international students by Hollis and Davis (2016) found that “culturally informed expectations … assigned blame on the victim of sexual assault” (p. 86). Using a sample of 626 undergraduate college students from a single university in the Southeast region of the United States, the purpose of the current study is to contribute to the existing literature by examining whether or not international students are more condoning of sexually coercive behaviors compared to domestic students.

Authors

• Chrystina Y. Hoffman, University of West Florida

• Nicole Niebuhr, University of West Florida

• Daniel W. Scott, Texas A&M International University