Intimate Partner Violence, Health, and Academic Performance Among a National Sample of Gender and Sexual Minority Undergraduates

Background and Purpose: A robust literature documents the negative effects of IPV on survivors’ physical, mental, and behavioral health. And yet, research on IPV and educational attainment – an essential domain of overall wellbeing – is essentially nonexistent. This oversight is problematic given that emerging adults, including college undergraduates, have a higher prevalence of IPV than other age groups. In addition, gender and sexual minorities have a higher prevalence of IPV compared to their cisgender and heterosexual peers. Lessons learned from research on IPV and employment – namely, that IPV negatively affects survivors’ productivity, performance, and participation – further underscores the need for research on how IPV affects these domains within higher education.  Thus, the study objectives are to: 1) Determine the extent to which IPV is associated with academic performance in undergraduate students, and according to gender and sexual identity; and 2) Explore the mediating role of health between IPV and academic performance.

Methods:  Using data from the 2011-2014 American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment, we analyzed self-report responses from a non-representative national sample of undergraduate students (N=86,286). We used structural equation modeling to examine the relationship between IPV (operationalized as a latent variable consisting of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and stalking) and two indicators of academic performance (i.e., GPA and perceived academic trauma). We tested this model by grouping students first by gender (female, male), and then by sexuality (heterosexual, gay, bisexual, unsure).

Results: Results of the CFA support the use of the latent variable of intimate partner violence (RMSEA=.023, CFI=.997, TLI=.992). Our model was found to be a good fit for our data (RMSEA=.016, CFI=.994, TLI=.989). We found that undergraduates who experienced IPV were more likely to experience academic trauma (.236, p<.001) and to have poorer GPA (.126, p<.001) through direct effects. IPV also was associated with poorer overall health (.126, p<.001), which in turn was associated with academic trauma (.205, p<.001) and poorer GPA (.177, p<.001). This model remained a good fit for the data when analyzing each gender and sexual group independently, and maintained similar point estimates that will be further discussed in the presentation.

Conclusion and Implications: This study addresses a considerable gap in the literature by demonstrating that IPV negatively affects academic performance, and that this relationship exists regardless of gender (female, male) and sexuality (heterosexual, gay, bisexual, unsure). Findings suggest that IPV interventions should consider academic performance along with physical and mental health as important domains of wellbeing. Future research should examine the specific mechanisms and tactics by which IPV compromises academic performance.