Assessing the Extent and Impact of School Sabotage Among Female Community College Students

Background:

School Sabotage (SS), defined as behaviors aimed at sabotaging survivor’s efforts to gain educational credentials, is a form of coercive control linked to intimate partner violence (IPV). Preventing a survivor from increasing their economic and social power via education impacts long-term job stability and self-sufficiency, potentially furthering the survivor’s dependence on an abusive partner.  Although studies in sheltered or IPV counseling populations reveal that survivors have faced tactics of school sabotage, no studies to date have gone into academic settings to ask students about their experiences of SS.

 

Methods:

This paper presents results from a mixed methods study that evaluated the extent and impacts of SS among female students attending four community college campuses.  It asks the following questions: 1) To what extent are students experiencing SS?  2) Are experiences of SS related to experiences of other forms of IPV? 3) What tactics of SS have students experienced? 4) What do students identify as the consequences of SS? A simple random sample of 435 currently or recently partnered female students completed a web-based quantitative survey.  It included a standardized measure of IPV (Shepard & Campbell, 1992) and an adapted version of the Work/School Abuse Scale (Riger, Ahrens, & Blickenstaff, 2001).  Quantitative analysis included descriptive and bivariate analysis. Additionally, 20 students who identified as IPV survivors were recruited to participate in semi-structured in-depth interviews.  Qualitative analysis included initial narrative analysis followed by a combination of “coding down” from pre-established categories based on key research questions and “coding up” as concepts arose from the data.

Findings:

Eighteen percent of respondents reported experiencing SS in the past 12 months, and experiences were strongly correlated with experiencing other forms of IPV (r=.47 for physical IPV, r=.61 for sexual IPV, and r=.58 for emotional IPV).  Key tactics of SS identified qualitatively included disruption of financial aid, childcare, and transportation, physical violence or stalking at school, academic jealousy, and lack of academic support.   Frequently cited impacts of SS included decreased ability to focus at school, diminished academic achievement, including reduced GPA and repeatedly dropping out, emotional impacts, and instilling a desire to overcome.  A final theme suggested that some abusive partners were supportive of women’s academic efforts, while engaging in other controlling behaviors. 

Conclusions and Implications: 

School sabotage should be considered a form of IPV likely to impact survivors in higher education. For those who have been isolated due to IPV, engaging in school may provide a “golden moment” that could break cycles of financial dependency and enhance long-term safety.  Many survivors discussed choosing to stay in an abusive relationship in the short term so that they could attain the educational credentials that would give them long term security. Educational institutions are already aware of the need to screen for physical IPV, so school-based mental health professionals could include aspects of SS in their screening. In response to these findings, staff should also be prepared to include academic safety planning in their response to IPV, and enhance links to community-based IPV services as needed.