The Impact of Sexual Orientation on College Student Victimization: An Examination of Sexual Minority and Non-Sexual Minority Student Populations

摘要

Our research examines the possible association of sexual orientation and self-reported sexual harassment, sexual assault, intimate partner psychological abuse, and intimate partner physical abuse of college students from a northeastern university in the United States. Understanding the prevalence of these behaviors within this age group is important, as developing appropriate college policy to reduce these actions at this time may be beneficial for future prevention. This study also allows for one of the few true comparisons between those students who identified as sexual minority and non-sexual minority college students1. A total of 1881 college students were surveyed. Classes were randomly selected and surveys were administered to students in those classes. Gender specific models were also analyzed to examine if the relationship between sexual orientation and victimization differs for males and females. The results from the analyses support the prediction that sexual minority students were more likely to report all four types of victimization than non-sexual minority students. Sexual minority students were about four times more likely to report sexual assault, two times more likely to report sexual harassment and physical abuse, and about 1.5 times more likely to report psychological abuse. Sexual minority males were more likely to report sexual assault (nine times), sexual harassment (3.5 times), and physical abuse (twice as likely). Sexual minority females were about twice as likely to report sexual assault, physical abuse, and psychological abuse.