College students’ experiences of sexual violence and reasons for seeking care in campus health and counseling centers

Abstract

Objective

Examine associations between care seeking reasons in college health and counseling centers and sexual violence (SV).

Participants

College students (n = 2,084 baseline, n = 1,170 one-year follow up) participating in a cluster randomized controlled trial of an SV reduction intervention on 28 campuses.

Methods

Computer-based survey data gathered during students’ clinic visit and one-year follow up.

Results

Despite high prevalence of SV, students almost never sought care specifically for SV (0.5% of reported visits). Gender differences emerged for reasons students sought care generally, but were not associated with differences in care seeking among those who experienced SV. At baseline and one-year, students who reported SV were more likely to state mental or sexual and reproductive health as their reason for care seeking.

Conclusion

Many students seeking care have experienced SV yet present with other health needs. Providers need to recognize this and have a low threshold for providing SV resources routinely.

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2022.2057189

Keywords:

• Care seeking
• college student health
• sexual violence

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the entire research team for their dedication to this work. We would also like to thank our campus partners and student participants for sharing their expertise and experiences to make this work possible.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the University of Pittsburgh, and site IRBs.

Additional information

Funding

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) under award number K23AA027288 and R01AA023260 and Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under award number T32HD087162. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.