Kateryna M. Sylaska

Disclosure of Intimate Partner Violence to Informal Social Support Network Members: A Review of the Literature

This article presents a review of the published literature to date on rates, experiences, and correlates of victims’ disclosure of or help seeking for intimate partner violence to informal social support network members (e.g., friends, family, classmates, and coworkers). Research indicates that the majority of individuals disclose to at least one informal support and that victims’ disclosure is associated with a number of demographic (e.g., victims’ sex, age, race), intrapersonal (e.g., victims’ feelings of shame/embarrassment, perception of control over abuse), and situational (e.g., violence frequency and severity, if abuse is witnessed) factors. Following disclosure, victims experience a wide range of positive (e.g., believing the victim’s reports, validating the victim’s experiences) and negative (e.g. disbelieving, blaming the victim) social reactions, with positive reactions rated as the most common and most helpful forms of support by victims. Finally, a review of psychological correlates associated with reactions to disclosure indicates that positive social reactions are associated with more psychological health benefits and fewer negative health symptoms, whereas negative social reactions were associated with increased negative psychological health symptoms. Future research methodologies and implications for violence prevention, intervention, and policy are discussed.

Physical Dating Violence, Sexual Violence, and Unwanted Pursuit Victimization A Comparison of Incidence Rates Among Sexual-Minority and Heterosexual College Students

The purpose of this study was to estimate the 6-month incidence rates of sexual assault, physical dating violence (DV), and unwanted pursuit (e.g., stalking) victimization among sexual-minority (i.e., individuals with any same-sex sexual experiences) college students with comparison data from non-sexual-minority (i.e., individuals with only heterosexual sexual experiences) college students. Participants (N = 6,030) were primarily Caucasian (92.7%) and non-sexual-minority (82.3%). Compared with non-sexual-minority students (N-SMS; n = 4,961), sexual-minority students (SMS; n = 1,069) reported significantly higher 6-month incidence rates of physical DV (SMS: 30.3%; N-SMS: 18.5%), sexual assault (SMS: 24.3%; N-SMS: 11.0%), and unwanted pursuit (SMS: 53.1%; N-SMS: 36.0%) victimization. We also explored the moderating role of gender and found that female SMS reported significantly higher rates of physical DV than female N-SMS, whereas male SMS and male N-SMS reported similar rates of physical DV. Gender did not moderate the relationship between sexual-minority status and victimization experiences for either unwanted pursuit or sexual victimization. These findings underscore the alarmingly high rates of interpersonal victimization among SMS and the critical need for research to better understand the explanatory factors that place SMS at increased risk for interpersonal victimization.

Informal Social Reactions to College Women’s Disclosure of Intimate Partner Violence Associations With Psychological and Relational Variables

This researchers assessed informal (e.g., friends, family) social reactions to college women’s (N = 139) disclosure of intimate partner violence (IPV) within their current romantic relationships and associated psychological (i.e., posttraumatic stress symptoms [PTSS] and global psychological distress symptoms) and relational (i.e., intentions to leave the abusive relationship) variables. Women completed confidential surveys, which assessed current partner abuse, psychological and relational variables, and three types of social reactions from informal supports to disclosure of IPV: positive (e.g., believing, validating the victim), negative (e.g., disbelieving, blaming the victim), and leaving (i.e., being told to end the relationship) reactions. At the bivariate level, negative social reactions to women’s disclosure were related to increases in global psychological distress, PTSS, and leaving intentions; positive social reactions to disclosure related only to increases in PTSS; and being told to leave the relationship related to increases in PTSS and leaving intentions. In the regression analyses, after controlling for abuse severity, negative social reactions were significantly related to global psychological distress and PTSS, and being told to leave significantly related to leaving intentions and PTSS. Mechanisms for these relationships and implications are discussed.

Gender in Motion: Developmental Changes in Students’ Conceptualizations of Gender Through Participation in a First-Year Seminar Course

Students enrolled in a first-year seminar course focused on gender provided attitudinal and experiential responses at two points during the course: during the first week of class and during the last week of class. A qualitative-quantitative method using concurrent triangulation was used to investigate pre- and post-test responses to core concepts of a gender class and to potential changes in students’ perceptions of gender, masculinity, femininity, and corporate media on enacted gender. Qualitative analyses suggested that course curricula moved students to conceptualize dimensions of gender in new and more intellectually complex ways. Two dominant themes—the power of social-structural forces to channel gender appropriateness and personal transformations of embodying an authentic gender—emerged from narrative analyses. Narratives also elucidated the importance of pedagogical tenor in creating a class environment where students felt safe to challenge currently-held intellectual and interpersonal conceptualizations of gender.

College Campus Community Readiness to Address Intimate Partner Violence Among LGBTQ+ Young Adults: A Conceptual and Empirical Examination.

This paper provides an overview of a conceptual model that integrates theories of social ecology, minority stress, and community readiness to better understand risk for and outcomes of intimate partner violence (IPV) among LGBTQ+ college students. Additionally, online survey data was collected from a sample of 202 LGBTQ+ students enrolled in 119 colleges across the United States to provide preliminary data on some aspects of the proposed model. Results suggested that students generally thought their campuses were low in readiness to address IPV; that is, students felt that their campuses could do more to address IPV and provide IPV services specific to LGBTQ+ college students. Perceptions of greater campus readiness to address IPV among LGBTQ+ college students was significantly and positively related to a more favorable LGBTQ+ campus climate and a greater sense of campus community. Additionally, IPV victims were more likely to perceive higher levels of campus community readiness than non-IPV victims. There was no association between IPV perpetration and perceptions of campus community readiness. Greater sense of community was marginally and inversely related to IPV victimization and perpetration. Sense of community and LGBTQ+ campus climate also varied to some extent as a function of region of the country and type of institution. Implications for further development and refinement of the conceptual model, as well as future research applying this model to better understand IPV among sexual minority students are discussed.