In this chapter, the author will a summary of the study and implications for higher education institutions. She will also discuss limitations of the study and ways to improve upon it in future studies.
Summary
The open themed coding process used in this study led to the development of critical themes relating to each research question. First, it was found that survivors have little to no knowledge about Title IX. Their knowledge often originated from ideas of gender equality in sports and academics. Many of the participants were unaware of the purpose of Title IX concerning investigating and adjudicating university cases of sexual violence and did not understand how the services operated until they were already involved in the process. This prompts questions about where and in what ways, are students being provided information about university procedures and Title IX. This theme is consistent with findings from Sabina and Ho (2014) who found that there is a general lack of “knowledge about campus services among students” (p. 218). It also is consistent with findings from Mcmahon and Stepleton (2018) who state that students have “limited overall awareness” (p. 113) of what services are available to them.
Second, many participants reported general knowledge about Counseling Consultation Services (CCS), the on-campus mental health agency. Some had used the service before their experience with sexual violence and others had not but knew how to access it and used it
following their experience with sexual violence. It seemed that ample information was available about the resource, probably because of its utility as a resource for all students. Eisenberg et al. (2016) found that female undergraduate sexual assault survivors had better mental health if they
attended a university with more available resources related to sexual assault. Considering the intersection of sexual victimization and detriments to mental health, knowledge of mental health services may be important for survivors’ recovery.
Participants identified CCS and Title IX most often as resources they used in response to their experience with sexual violence. It was surprising that only four participants did not seek out or use resources of any kind considering existing research reports the rate of service utilization among college sexual assault survivors to be much lower (Krivoshey et al., 2013; Zinzow & Thompson, 2011; Orchowski et al., 2009). The variety of resources used supports the idea that survivors may need access to an array of services to accommodate diverse needs (Nasta et al, 2005). The use of CCS is indicative of the type of assistance desired by the sample. CCS provides confidential counseling services. The act of disclosing to or seeking assistance from a counselor or therapist may mean that survivors would rather seek services that maintain
confidentiality.
Title IX was used less often than CCS, but still warranted the creation of a theme. Title IX was used for a variety of reasons. Often, Title IX was used after a referral was made from another university-affiliated entity, such as Disability Services or Student Health Services, or a Resident Advisor. Title IX's role as a resource utilized by sexual violence survivors is complex. Since many of the participants were not aware of how the service operates until after beginning the process, this may have had impacts on how the resource was perceived by the participants. The student’s level of knowledge of the resource before their experience with sexual violence may have impacted their decision to use it as well. Additional research must be conducted to understand the sociocultural factors that impact service-seeking and service-utilization behaviors.
Experiences using campus resources were varied based on the resource and the
participant. Most commonly, CCS facilitated positive and helpful experiences. Their experiences with CCS facilitated processing their sexual violence victimization. Another identified theme was the presence of waiting. Some participants were put on waitlists to receive services and others were made to wait extended periods to receive information from different campus resources. This idea of waiting is of concern because many participants expressed negative consequences of waiting, such as feeling that their immediate needs are not being met or the fear that their perpetrator would graduate and leave before the university delivered their decision on a disciplinary hearing.
Gaps and recommendations identified by the sample align with prior studies that used self-reported qualitative data. Participants identified a lack of awareness of available resources and the need for more information. Zinzow and Thompson (2011) recommended increased awareness of available resources as a way to improve rates of reporting and service-seeking. Sabina and Ho (2014) found that survivors’ recommendations depended on the needs of the student body but increased access to information was a common need. Finally, McMahon and Stepleton (2018) emphasized exposure to information as a major factor in awareness of available campus resources and comfortability seeking them out among undergraduate women.
The final theme was a lack of adequate on-campus mental health services and the need for expansion of CCS to accommodate the number of students seeking services. Participants were frustrated by the number of available counselors and therapists, the wait time in between appointments, waiting lists to receive services, and the act of referring students to off-campus mental health services. The latter may be a barrier to some students who do not have a car or have money to spend on public transportation to access the services out in the community. This
finding is significant because it identifies a direct concern with institutional decision making that is directly impacting the wellbeing of all students, not just survivors. It illustrated that, in certain ways, the university may not be providing timely services to the best of their ability.
Implications
Although the study is not generalizable due to a small sample size, it can be replicated at other institutions to study the knowledge and utilization of campus resources among different populations of survivors of sexual violence. There are several implications for future research and for improving practice related to survivor support at colleges and universities. The identified themes created points of discussion that could be enhanced through further study. Specifically, the lack of knowledge about Title IX and its purpose was an unexpected theme. With Title IX being an integral part of advocacy for victims of interpersonal violence and justice for
perpetrators, it seems vital that students be made aware of how it operates and what protections it provides. Universities are obligated to not only follow Title IX regulations but also to make its services accessible and to increase awareness of them among their student body.
Another theme that warrants further study is the utilization of on-campus mental health services. Survivors are using therapy for several reasons, but the sample in this study identified it as a specific resource used in response to sexual victimization. If it is an important resource for survivors, attention should be given to studying accessibility and adequacy of on-campus mental health services for survivors and how that impacts their personal experiences. The utilization of CCS was high and survivors identified a greater need among the student body than is currently being accommodated. The role of mental health services in survivors’ healing may be important and require further study. The university should consider allocating time, funding, and effort, to
increase the availability of mental health services, whether they are general for any student or specialized to meet the needs of sexual trauma survivors.
The lack of awareness of available campus resources was a significant concern among survivors. For both research and practice purposes, this theme is important. Future research could study levels of awareness about campus resources among a larger sample of the student body. Prior research backs up the notion that increased awareness of resources is beneficial for
students. The effectiveness of applied interventions to increase awareness of resources may be a point of study as well. For example, some of the recruitment flyers were hung inside stalls in women’s bathrooms. A few of the survivors mentioned the privacy of the bathroom stall as a reason why they felt comfortable with tearing off a tab from the flyer and subsequently
contacting the researcher or her advisor about participating in the study. (See table 5 a.) Colleges and universities may gauge its effectiveness as an intervention to increase awareness of available resources. They may choose to apply and study a different supported intervention such as social media campaigns or informational events.
Table 5a.
Flyers in bathroom stalls
10 “…opportunities for people to see those services on the back of the stalls are really nice.” 16 “…posting it in women's restrooms…things like that where someone can discreetly get
the information and not feel uncomfortable taking a picture of it, or looking at it…”
The contextual information found supports the need for other areas of study, such as substance use, mandated reporting, and shame and stigma as barriers to reporting and service- seeking. A few respondents reported not feeling supported, which was a deep feeling of
frustration among these participants. One woman said she felt “incredibly unsupported” by the university and a couple of others said they were frustrated by the university’s inaction in prior allegations of sexual violence against faculty and students. Two participants said the university can support survivors better by not covering up cases of sexual violence. Whatever the origin of the frustration, it translated into self-identified ways in which the university can investigate and improve the adequacy of support services for student survivors. There are several decisions a survivor must make when dealing with a sexual victimization. They must choose to report or disclose their experience and who to disclose to as well as what services they want to seek out. Identifying the factors that lead survivors to make such decisions is vital to understanding how survivors can be better supported by their institutions.
Overall, students deserve more access to and information about the resources they desire, and higher education institutions have a responsibility to fill that need for their students. At The Ohio State University, there are ample opportunities for improvement to how survivors are being supported. First, the university must listen and learn from the lived experiences of their student survivors so that they may have a say in improving the quality of not only their time here, but that of the greater campus climate. University action is but one step in ending the perpetuation and acceptance of sexual violence as the norm.
Limitations
There were many limitations in this study that must be noted. There was no cause and effect relationship found in the study because it was exploratory. For that reason, results and conclusions are based solely on primary data collected from a small sample size. Data collected in a cross-sectional qualitative study that uses a small sample is not generalizable among the entire population. In this study, while incredible insight was gained into the experiences of a
group of women enrolled at The Ohio State University, it cannot be definitively concluded that their thoughts, experiences, and suggestions are representative of most sexual violence survivors at the university or survivors at other higher education institutions. A larger sample size would not only provide more data, but it would also improve the generalizability of the study by
increasing its reliability. To handle a larger sample size, a larger research team would be required to administer interviews, transcribe interviews, and to decode themes from the data.
The information presented is that of undergraduate, and one graduate, students who self- identified as survivors of sexual violence. Although some potential participants asked about the definition of sexual violence being used in the study, no one was disqualified from participating if they believed their experience fell under an inclusive definition of unwanted sexual
interactions. If participants had been asked to identify the specific classification of their victimization, for example, completed rape versus attempted sexual assault, more insight may have been provided on the correlation between classification and knowledge of resources, resource-seeking behaviors, and experiences using resources.
In a potential replication of this study, the researcher may choose to restructure Part II of the Qualtrics Survey. Its purpose was to assist in answering the research questions by solidifying the themes from the interview data. Most of the statements did not directly answer the research questions. Paired with the small sample size, no definite conclusions could be made. The answer option of “not applicable” played a part in skewing the data. Many participants chose this option because they did not use the resource the item was referring or they did not identify it as being related to their experiences. Nevertheless, the choice “not applicable” is a valid option and should have been included to accommodate survivors who did not use or have knowledge of specific services.
Future research that uses a qualitative interview approach to study service-seeking behaviors would gather more data by asking behavior-specific questions. This may more clearly identify the thoughts and motivations behind actions being studied. The qualitative interview process may have yielded more usable data if additional follow-up questions had been asked. The following questions were identified as possible additions to follow-up questions for the interview guide; “Why?”, “Can you explain what you mean by that?”, and “How does that make you feel?”. Their purpose would be to probe the participant to offer up more words and phrases that may prove to be helpful in the themed coding process. Additionally, only certain resources were asked about in the Qualtrics Survey and the Interview Guide. For example, Title IX and the SCE were referred to in the interview guide, but Counseling Consultation Studies (CCS), Student Conduct, University Police, Student Health services, Student Advocacy, and the Student
Wellness Center, were left out. In future studies, to improve uniformity and increase the quantity of available data, the same questions should be asked about all identifiable, available, on-campus resources.
In this chapter, the author presented a summary of the study and discussed implications for higher education institutions. She also discussed limitations of the study and ways to improve upon it in future studies.
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Appendix A. Qualtrics Survey Part II: Knowledge, Opinions, and Experiences Link to online survey: https://osu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1WUtKJytkjK5Fm5
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree nor Disagree Agree Strongly Agree Not Applicable (1) I had knowledge of
the university's sexual misconduct policy at the time of my
experience with sexual violence. n=4 n=5 n=3 n=6 n=1 n=0 (2) The university's current sexual misconduct policy is adequate. n=1 n=2 n=8 n=8 n=0 n=0 (3) The university's current sexual misconduct policy is comprehensive. n=1 n=5 n=8 n=4 n=1 n=0 (4) I had knowledge of the practice of mandatory reporting at the time of my
experience with sexual violence. n=5 n=4 n=3 n=5 n=2 n=0 (5) The practice of mandatory reporting negatively impacted me as a survivor of sexual violence. n=3 n=5 n=4 n=1 n=3 n=3 (6) I had knowledge of the Title IX office, its purpose, and the services it provides at the time of my
experience with sexual violence.