Commuter Students’ Readiness to Help in Incidents of Campus Sexual Violence

Abstract

The present study examines commuter students’ readiness to help in incidents of sexual violence. Participants included 1,366 students, the majority of whom (79%) were commuters. Structural equation modeling was used to examine commuter status on readiness to help in incidents of sexual violence and the effect of awareness of sexual violence resources and sense of community on readiness to help. The results demonstrate that commuter students are less ready to help in incidents of sexual violence compared with non-commuters. These results suggest that those looking to engage students in sexual assault prevention efforts need to increase efforts to engage commuters.