Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["Linda Langford" <>]

I've thought a lot about this issue too. I hear this question from campus 
professionals working on many different issues (e.g., sexual assault, 
relationship abuse, mental health issues, hazing, substance abuse) -- how 
many students leave school because of this issue? Of course, some students 
will experience more than one of these issues and academic difficulties as 
well, any of which may or may not have an underlying relationship with one 
another. For example, a student pledging a fraternity might be hazed, be a 
heavy drinker, and have low grades. Each of these issues might be 
independently related to fraternity involvement, or they could be causally 
related (e.g., trauma from hazing leads to increased drinking leads to low 
grades.) So one of the puzzles is to try to disentangle "the reason" for 
leaving when there may be multiple factors operating in complex ways. 

And, as you stated Claire, any responses we could get from students would 
necessarily reflect their own attributions about why they left.....but I'd 
want to consider those attributions carefully for important information. For 
example, a student who was assaulted may (correctly) believe that it wasn't 
the assault per se that caused them to leave, but rather some other factor. 
In your example -- a student was assaulted, experienced falling grades as a 
result of trauma, and left school --she might still answer "no" on a survey 
asking if she left because of an assault because she doesn't think it was the 
assault itself that resulted in her leaving, but instead a lack of support 
services from the institution (or, alternatively, to something unrelated like 
family job loss.) So it seems like the best-designed questions would allow 
them to report both what they experienced *and* why they perceive that they 
left. 

Many institutions do have a department (e.g., retention, institutional 
research, etc.) that follows up with students who leave or transfer before 
graduating, but I don't think they even consider asking questions like this. 
Given the complexity, though, it almost seems like it would be better to 
interview the students rather than survey them. And I doubt they'd disclose 
issues like the ones we're discussing unless the call was from someone 
independent from the institution who promised them anonymity. I wonder if 
there's a brave institution out there that would allow that type of project?

Linda



Linda Langford, Sc.D.
Associate Center Director, Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug 
Abuse and Violence Prevention
www.HigherEdCenter.org
Evaluation Scientist, Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC)
www.sprc.org/
55 Chapel Street, Newton, MA  02458-1060
voice (800) 676-1730 x2719 OR (617) 618-2719 (direct line)
fax (617) 928-1537


-----Original Message-----
From: 

 
[mailto:]
 On Behalf Of Kaplan, Claire (cnk2r)
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 11:19 AM
To: 

Subject: RE: Withdrawls After Assaults?

This is an issue that has occupied me for quite a long time.  To really get 
an accurate set of data, one would have to get access to college records and 
send a survey out to those who withdrew prior to graduation to find out why 
someone left.  Even with that, it would take the participant the 
understanding that they actually left because of an assault, and not because 
of failing grades that we might recognize as the result of trauma.  Some 
students might not make the connections if the assault occurred sometime 
prior to leaving, just as some folks don't identify their assaults as rape 
when they legally fit that description.  This is a really important issue, 
and I'm wondering if we couldn't all collaborate on such a project. I'm not 
sure how we could do it, but it's really worth exploring.
Claire


Claire N Kaplan, PhD
Manager, SAPC Listserv
Director, Sexual & Domestic Violence Services
UVA Women's Center
PO Box 800588
Charlottesville VA 22908-0588
434-982-2774 Voice
434-982-2901 Fax




-----Original Message-----
From: S. Daniel Carter 
[mailto:]
 
Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 10:43 PM
To: Mike Domitrz; 

Subject: Re: Withdrawls After Assaults?

on 6/3/09 10:27 PM, Mike Domitrz at 

 wrote:

> While speaking at schools, I've met survivors who share privately that
> they left their previous school after a sexual assault -- and they
> often state they never told anyone why they actually left.

The data would almost certainly have to come from a type of victimization
study, I just don't know of any that have addressed this particular
question. Focusing only on those cases that were formally reported would
certainly skew the data given that in even the best case that'd reflect only
20% of all cases, and possibly less than 5%.

********************************
S. Daniel Carter
Director of Public Policy
Security On Campus, Inc.
http://www.securityoncampus.org/
e-mail:



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