#Metoosocialwork: Mental Health and Academic Impacts of Interpersonal Violence Exposure Among Social Work Students

Background and Purpose:  Social work educators train students to develop trauma-informed spaces for healing and growth across service systems. However, gaps exist in our understanding of the trauma exposure of our own students during their time in school, and the extent to which that is impacting their mental health and academic well-being as they pursue their social work education. Experiences of interpersonal violence, including intimate partner and sexual violence, as well as stalking and harassment, impact the mental health and wellbeing of student survivors, but little is known about social work students’ experiences. The current study explores interpersonal violence victimization among undergraduate and graduate social work students on seven campuses across a university system in the Southwest. It asks: What is the prevalence of interpersonal violence victimization (including intimate partner violence (IPV), sexual violence (SV), stalking, cyber abuse, and sexual harassment (SH) among social work students during their time in school? To what extent is victimization associated with mental health and academic outcomes?  To what extent is such victimization associated with students’ perceptions of campus climate?

Methods: The sample comprises 734 self-identified social work students across seven campuses of a university system in the Southwest.  Data for this study were collected via a randomized, anonymous, web-based survey which was administered through the Qualtrics platform. Nearly sixty percent of students (59.3%) identified as graduate or professional students, with 88% identifying as female.  Students were 29.1 years (SD = 9.4) old on average.  Forty-four percent of respondents identified as Hispanic or Latino, while 41% identified as White, and 11% identified as African American.  Most students (91%) were living off campus, and 27% were caring for children in the home. Standardized measures for physical & psychological IPV, stalking, student & faculty/staff perpetrated SH, cyber abuse, and SV were administered, along with measures of PTSD, depression, academic disengagement, and perceived campus climate.  Analysis included descriptive, bivariate, and multiple regression analyses.

Results: Social work students reported rates of interpersonal violence victimization similar to those seen in other college student populations.  Over 14% reported exposure to any form of SV since enrollment.  Among those who had been in an intimate relationship since their enrollment at their current institution, 8.6% reported experiences of physical IPV victimization and 19.4% reported psychological IPV victimization. Nearly 10% had experienced cyber harassment, while 17% reported experiencing any stalking behavior, and 34% experienced SH.  Strong and significant correlations with depression, PTSD, and academic disengagement behaviors were observed for survivors of psychological IPV, sexual violence, and harassment.  Significant correlations were observed between campus climate indicators and experiences of IPV and SH.  Multiple regression analyses found significant relationship between academic disengagement and interpersonal violence victimization remained when controlling for mental health and demographic indicators.

Conclusions and Implications: Social work educators recognize the importance of training trauma-informed professionals.  We must also develop trauma-informed classrooms which can equip students to address the impacts of violence in their own lives, as they prepare for careers supporting others.