Stalking-Related Attitudes of Perpetrators and Victims of College Stalking and Unwanted Pursuit

• In Event: Lightning Talk: Victimization

Abstract

Greater endorsement of stalking-related attitudes is shown to be associated with higher levels of perpetration and victimization of stalking and unwanted pursuit (Lippman & Ward, 2014) and failure to recognize stalking behaviors when they occur (McKeon et al., 2014). Given the elevated rates of stalking amongst college students (Fedina et al., 2020), understanding the impact of stalking-related attitudes on behaviors in a college sample is worthy of further exploration. Participants (N = 950) were recruited from a large, Midwestern university and completed a demographics questionnaire, the Obsessional Relational Intrusion Short-Form (ORI-SF, Spitzberg & Cupach, 2014), and the Stalking-Related Attitudes Questionnaire (SRAQ, McKeon et al., 2015). Participants were categorized as victims, perpetrators, or dual victim/perpetrators based on the ORI, with the majority classified as victims (n = 625, 65.8%). The nature of behaviors perpetrated/experienced ranged from low-level harassment and intrusiveness (e.g., monitoring) to more severe behaviors (e.g., stalking, sexual coercion). Significant differences were observed between groups on the SRAQ, F(2,190)= 10.73, p < 0.001. Post-hoc comparisons revealed that the mean value of stalking-related attitudes was only significantly different between the victim and dual groups (p <.001, 95% CI [4.81, 15.62]), such that dual victim/perpetrators endorsed greater stalking-related attitudes compared to victims.

Authors

• Lillian Bopp, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Maria Rosa Viñas-Racionero, University of Barcelona

• Mario J. Scalora, University of Nebraska - Lincoln