Preferred Name
Sarah Anolik
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0462-1475
Date of Graduation
5-6-2021
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)
Department
Department of Graduate Psychology
Advisor(s)
Anne L. Stewart
Robin D. Anderson
Craig Shealy
Matthew Ezzell
Abstract
Despite the proliferation of many vital bystander intervention programs across the country, approximately one in four college women will experience sexual violence. Though it was once believed that a small minority of men were responsible for the vast majority of sexual violence, an estimated 12%-25% of college men report having used sexual violence as an undergraduate student. Research across disciplines suggests several factors associated with the perpetration of sexual violence. While numerous studies have explored these constructs quantitatively on and off college campuses, there have been far fewer qualitative studies that provide insight into how men who have perpetrated violence understand their own behavior, and none that have explored undergraduate men’s perspectives within the context of hookup and broader United States culture on college campuses. The purpose of the current study was to further an understanding of how heterosexual cisgender undergraduate men account for and describe sexually violent behavior, and to evaluate how these narratives correspond to the constructs heretofore identified as relevant to these behaviors, including attachment needs, gender socialization, and the influence of sociocultural context (alcohol use, hookup culture, precarious manhood). A mixed methods approach was used in order to use quantitative responses as a grouping variable to make comparisons between qualitative responses of participants with different patterns of violence use as well as comparisons between responses to quantitative and qualitative items that asked about related content. Though some of the participants’ beliefs were consistent with prior research, there were several novel themes that emerged. There were also discrepancies between how participants responded to qualitative and quantitative items, including whether participants identified their own behaviors as sexually violent. Emergent themes, as well as implications for college personnel, intervention development, clinicians, and future research are discussed.
Recommended Citation
Anolik, Sarah, "How college men describe their understanding of sexual assault" (2021). Dissertations, 2020-current. 38.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/diss202029/38
Embargo form
Sarah Anolik - Dissertation Approval Page (Three Signature Version).docx (83 kB)
Approval form
Included in
Clinical Psychology Commons, Domestic and Intimate Partner Violence Commons, Other Mental and Social Health Commons, Personality and Social Contexts Commons, Psychological Phenomena and Processes Commons, Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons, Social Psychology Commons
