Mazheruddin M. Mulla

Social Norms for Intimate Partner Violence in Situations Involving Victim Infidelity

The present study investigated perceived descriptive norms (i.e., perceived prevalence) for male-to-female intimate partner violence (IPV) following victim infidelity (i.e., girlfriend had sex with another man). While watching a video-taped vignette of a young, dating couple in an argument that escalated to male-to-female violence, male participants were asked various questions to assess perceived descriptive norms at several time points during the escalating argument. Half of the participants were told that the victim in the video was unfaithful. Results suggested that while participants did believe that it was much more common for their male friends and for typical male students to aggress against unfaithful girlfriends compared to faithful girlfriends, these differences were less pronounced as the aggression intensified. When testing whether perceived norms for IPV were related to participants’ purported risk of engaging in IPV, a clear pattern appeared: For the no-infidelity condition, IPV perceived norms for male friends and perceived norms for typical male students were each significantly related to participants’ likelihood of engaging in IPV, such that the higher the estimated norm, the higher the participants’ risk. However, for the infidelity condition, only perceived norms for male friends were related to the risk of engaging in IPV. Findings have important implications for social norms–based intervention and prevention programs for IPV on college campuses.

Bystander Interventions for Sexual Assault and Dating Violence on College Campuses: Are We Putting Bystanders in Harm's Way?.

ABSTRACT Objective: The present study investigated the well-being of bystanders who witness and intervene in sexual assault and dating violence situations on campus. Participants: Participants were 321 young men and women from a large university in the southeastern United States. Methods: Participants completed a survey at the end of the Spring semester of 2015 about risky situations they had witnessed, with follow-up questions about their responses to the situations (eg, whether they intervened or not) and feelings about their responses. Participants also completed standardized measures of posttraumatic stress disorder and depression. Results: Over 90% of the participants reported witnessing at least 1 of the risky events presented to them, and approximately 50% reported intervening in events. Intervening was associated with positive feelings, but traumatic stress symptoms were related to witnessing events and intervening. Conclusions: Results have direct implications for developing appropriate training programs for bystander intervention programs on college campuses.

The role of perceived sleep norms in subjective sleep appraisals and sleep-related illness behavior

The present investigation sought to extend extant research on subjective sleep complaints by examining their relation to perceived sleep norms. Results from two studies showed that individuals’ distress and illness behavior in response to symptoms of fatigue and non-restorative sleep was influenced by their perceptions of peer norms for those symptoms. Individuals who believed they experienced a greater degree of fatigue and non-restorative sleep than their peers reported more distress arising from those symptoms, and were also more likely to seek social support and medical treatment for them. Furthermore, participants who scored higher in neuroticism were more likely to believe they experienced worse fatigue and non-restorative sleep than their peers, and thus reported higher symptom-related distress, and higher likelihood of engaging in illness behaviors. These results provide preliminary evidence of the clinical relevance of perceived norms in the way individuals respond to and manage sleep related problems.

Perceived social norms for intimate partner violence in proximal and distal groups

This study investigated students’ perceived descriptive social norms for intimate partner violence (IPV) among proximal and distal groups at college. Male and female college students estimated the prevalence rates for IPV among same-sex friends (proximal group) and same-sex “typical students” (distal group). In separate regression equations for men and women, perceived estimates of IPV rates for same-sex friends, but not estimates for same-sex typical students, were positively related with the participants’ own IPV behaviors. Findings have important implications for IPV prevention and intervention programs for college students.

The Causal Influence of Perceived Social Norms on Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration: Converging Cross-Sectional, Longitudinal, and Experimental Support for a Social Disinhibition Model

Across three studies, we develop a model of the direct and indirect paths through which the perceived prevalence (perceived descriptive norms [PDN]) of intimate partner violence (IPV) among peers may influence individuals’ likelihood of engaging in IPV. Study 1 replicated and extended previous cross-sectional research by demonstrating a positive longitudinal association between PDN and subsequent IPV perpetration. Study 2 further showed the influence of PDN on IPV perpetration to be mediated through its relation to perceived peer acceptance of IPV (perceived injunctive norms [PIN]), which in turn predicted personal IPV acceptance. Study 3 built on this model using an experimental paradigm to show that increasing PDN leads to corresponding increases in PIN and, in turn, personal IPV acceptance, which both predicted IPV perpetration. Furthermore, the effects of PIN on personal IPV acceptance and IPV propensity were strongest for dominance-oriented individuals. Results bear important implications for social norms–based interventions for IPV.

Unmet social support needs among college students: Relations between social support discrepancy and depressive and anxiety symptoms.

Social support is a widely studied construct due to its associations with physical and emotional well-being outcomes (Uchino, 2006). However, little research examines the context within which receiving support may be helpful (Picard, Lee, & Hunsley, 1997). Whereas examinations of support adequacy are present in the literature (e.g., Song et al., 2012), limited research considers the difference between support needs and support received when the 2 are separated as distinct constructs. The current study consisted of 428 undergraduate college students and examined how the relation between social support needs and received social support relates to depressive and anxiety symptoms via a statistical approach suggested for need-actual discrepancy analysis (polynomial multiple regression, PMR, with response surface analysis; Edwards, 1994; Shanock, Baran, Gentry, Pattison, & Heggestad, 2010). Results indicated that greater discrepancy between needed support and received support was related to greater depressive, but not anxiety, symptoms. Specifically, when emotional support needs exceeded emotional support received, depressive symptoms tended to be highest. Moreover, perceptions of needed support were significantly greater than perceptions of received support, suggesting that college students in general perceive receiving less support than they need, and this discrepancy is related to greater depressive symptoms.