Factors that influence college student acknowledgment of sexual assault.

Abstract

Sexual assault is a common problem on college campuses, but exactly how common it is varies greatly across studies. This variance may be related to what researchers ask about sexual assault (e.g., the wording of questions in measures about sexual assault exposure) and who they ask (e.g., in terms of gender and sexual orientation). However, there is little research on the degree to which what sexual assault survivors are asked and who is asked impacts prevalence of sexual assault. In this study, we examined how the frequency of different forms of sexual assault (e.g., unwanted sexual contact, rape) predicted acknowledgment of having experienced sexual assault using two different forms of measurement in a sample of college men and women exposed to sexual assault (N = 240) using logistic regression and configural frequency analysis. Results indicated heterosexual cisgender men are less likely to acknowledge sexual assault when assaulted by either a woman or another man, heterosexual cisgender women are less likely to acknowledge sexual assault when assaulted by another woman, and both gay cisgender men and lesbian cisgender women are more likely to acknowledge sexual assault than their heterosexual counterparts. Results further suggested that students are more likely to acknowledge sexual assault in the context of unwanted sexual contact but not rape. These findings have implications for research on and outreach related to sexual assault on college campuses.