Campus Staff As Mandated Reporters: Knowledge of How to Help Survivors of Sexual Violence

Background: There has been increased recent attention to the issue of campus sexual assault. Coupled with this attention, institutions of higher education are taking steps to address this issue including implementing policies that mandate staff, including social workers, to report incidents of interpersonal violence, such as sexual violence or domestic violence, to the authorities. Many of these staff members have little to no experience with such mandatory reporting requirements and may not understand their role. The paper explores campus staff’s knowledge of if they are mandated reporters and how this relates to their knowledge of how to assist survivors of sexual violence.   

Methods: The online anonymous staff survey was conducted at a Northeastern university in 2017. The sample (n=188) was largely women (67.02%), fulltime employees (93.05%) who had been at the university for over a year (86.23%). Staff were asked if they were a mandated reporter and responses were recoded for those who knew their mandated reporter status (89.36%) and those who did not (10.64%). Other survey items included a scale measuring knowledge of how to assist student survivors of campus sexual violence (e.g., question “If a student was sexually assaulted and shared this information with me, I know what to do”). The same questions were asked for assisting survivors of domestic violence. Finally, staff were asked about their knowledge of campus specific resources for interpersonal violence (e.g., the counseling center).

Using multiple regression, we compared staff who were aware of their mandated reporter status to those who were not aware of their status, on their knowledge of how to assist survivors of campus sexual violence. The final model also included knowledge of how to assist survivors of domestic violence and awareness of local resources. Demographic factors were controlled for as well.

Results: The results indicate that staff who knew their mandatory reporter status were more knowledgeable of how to help sexual assault survivors compared to staff who did not know if they were mandated reporter (p < .001). Additionally, staff who knew their mandatory reporter status had greater knowledge of how to help victims of domestic violence (p < .001) and had greater awareness of local campus resources (p < .005). Other demographic factors were not statistically significant.    

Conclusions and Implications: Many staff on college campuses are tasked with the duty of assisting survivors of sexual violence navigate the institutional resources and policies and yet, may not understand how to do so. This study indicates that staff’s knowledge of their mandated reporter status increases the ability to assist sexual violence survivors. Increasingly as institutions mandate that staff members report incidents of sexual violence to the authorities, staff’s knowledge of their mandatory reporting duties may require staff to further understand the complexities of the institution and increase their ability to assist student survivors. These findings have implications for social workers who may be mandated to report incidents of sexual violence on campuses and for institutions looking to increase staff’s knowledge of how to assist survivors of sexual violence.