This article reports findings from an exploratory study of six undergraduate college students who described their academic experience after undergoing an incident of sexual violence while in college. Eight essential constituents comprise the academic experiences the six participants described: negative emotional and mental health consequences, shame and self-blame, isolation from classmates and professors, impaired ability to focus on academic tasks, losing motivation and questioning academic goals, finding ways to cope, healing and reconnection, and academic identity as more than GPA.
Cite this paper
Lorenzo, L. and Anderson, S. K. (2020). Exploring the Academic Experience of College Student Survivors of Sexual Violence. Open Access Library Journal, 7, e6288. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1106288.
Eisenberg, M.E., et al. (2016) Campus Sexual Violence Resources and Emotional Health of College Women Who Have Experienced Sexual Assault. Violence and Victims, 31, 274-284. https://doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708.VV-D-14-00049
White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault (2017) Preventing and Addressing Campus Sexual Misconduct: A Guide for University and College Presidents, Chancellors, and Senior Administrators. US Government Publishing Office, Washington DC.
Krebs, C.P., Lindquist, C., Berzofsky, M., Shook-Sa, B., Peterson, K., Planty, M., Langton, L. and Stroop, J. (2016) Campus Climate Survey Validation Study Final Technical Report. US Dept. of Statistics, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Washington DC.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Division of Violence Prevention (CDC/NCIPC/DVP) (2019) Preventing Sexual Violence.
https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/sexualviolence/fastfact.html
Jordan, C.E., Combs, J.L. and Smith, G.T. (2014) An Exploration of Sexual Victimization and Academic Performance among College Women. Trauma, Violence and Abuse, 15, 191-200. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838014520637
Mengo, C. and Black, B.M. (2015) Violence Victimization on a College Campus. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 18, 234-248.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1521025115584750
Baker, M.R., Frazier, P.A., Greer, C., Paulsen, J.A., Howard, K., Meredith, L.N., Anders, S.L. and Shallcross, S.L. (2016) Sexual Victimization History Predicts Academic Performance in College Women. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63, 685-692. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000146
Banyard, V.L., Demers, J.M., Cohn, E.S., Edwards, K.M., Moynihan, M.M., Walsh, W.A. and Ward, S.K. (2017) Academic Correlates of Unwanted Sexual Contact, Intercourse, Stalking, and Intimate Partner Violence: An Understudied But Important Consequence for College Students. Journal of Interpersonal Violence.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260517715022
Patterson Silver Wolf, D.A., Perkins, J., Van Zile-Tamsen, C. and Butler-Barnes, S. (2016) Impact of Violence and Relationship Abuse on Grades of American Indian/Alaska Native Undergraduate College Students. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 33, 3686-3704. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260516639255
EverFi. (2015) Insight Report Winter 2015: Sexual Victimization and Social Norms on the College Campus. Summary of Research—Winter 2015.
http://info.everfi.com/rs/everfi/images/EverFiInsightReportWinter2015.pdf
Ulirsch, J.C., Ballina, L.E., Soward, A.C., Rossi, C., Hauda, W., Holbrook, D., Wheeler, K.A., Foley, J., Batts, R., Collette, E., Goodman, S.A. and McLean, S.A. (2014) Pain and Somatic Symptoms Are Sequela of Sexual Assault: Results of a Prospective Longitudinal Study. European Journal of Pain, 18, 559-566.
https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1532-2149.2013.00395.x
Polkinghorne, D.E. (1989) Pheomenological Research Methods. In: Valle, R.S. and Halling, S., Eds., Existential-Phenomenological Perspectives in Psychology: Exploring the Breadth of Human Experience, Plenum Press, New York, 41-60.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6989-3_3
Roberts, T. (2013) Understanding the Research Methodology of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. British Journal of Midwifery, 21, 215-218.
https://doi.org/10.12968/bjom.2013.21.3.215
Groenewald, T. (2004) A Phenomenological Research Design Illustrated. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 3, 1-26.
https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690400300104
Giorgi, A. and Giorgi, B. (2003) The Descriptive Phenomeno-Logical Psychological Method. Qualitative Research in Psychology. In: Camic, P.M., Rhodes, J.E. and Yardley, L., Eds., Expanding Perspectives in Methodology and Design, American Psychological Association, Washington DC, 243-273.
https://doi.org/10.1037/10595-013
Giorgi, A., Giorgi, B. and Morley, J. (2017) The Descriptive Phenomenological Psychological Method. In: Willig, C. and Stainton Rogers, W., Eds., The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology, 2nd Edition, Sage, Thousand Oaks, 176-192. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526405555.n11
Giorgi, A. (1997) The Theory, Practice, and Evaluation of the Phenomenological Method as a Qualitative Research. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 28, 235. https://doi.org/10.1163/156916297X00103
Steenkamp, M., Dickstein, B., Salters Pedneault, K., Hofmann, S. and Litz, B. (2012) Trajectories of PTSD Symptoms Following Sexual Assault: Is Resilience the Modal Outcome? Journal of Traumatic Stress, 25, 469-474.
https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.21718
Draucker, C.B., Martsolf, D.S., Ross, R., Cook, C.B., Sti-dham, A.W. and Mweemba, P. (2009) The Essence of Healing from Sexual Violence: A Qualitative Metasynthesis. Research in Nursing & Health, 32, 366-378. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.20333
Lilgendahl, J.P., McLean, K.C. and Mansfield, C.D. (2013) When Is Meaning Making Unhealthy for the Self? The Roles of Neuroticism, Implicit Theories, and Memory Telling in Trauma and Transgression Memories. Memory, 21, 79-96.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2012.706615