Student stories of resilience after campus sexual assault

Abstract

Undergraduate students who experience campus sexual assault (CSA) are faced with a wide array of potentially detrimental mental health and educational outcomes that may significantly impact their sense of wellbeing. Many researchers have focused on documenting these consequences of CSA, but there is a dearth of research on students’ post-assault experiences. Specifically, there is a lack of scholarship exploring students’ lived experiences of navigating their post-assault lives in their campus environment through the lens of resilience. The purpose of this study was to explore the phenomenon of resilience among undergraduate students who have experienced CSA, through a qualitative phenomenological inquiry. This study used critical conceptual understandings of resilience, including socio-ecological and intersectional feminist theoretical perspectives and social work discourses of resilience, to further complicate how the phenomenon is often described in scholarship. The findings revealed four key themes of the phenomenon to include resilience within the context of agency, coping, connection, and hope. Recommendations and implications across social work research, policy, and practice are presented, specifically those identified by the participants as recommendations for change in addressing CSA and supporting student experiences of resilience.

The Psychology of Resilience: Empowering Athletes with a Potential Risk of Experiencing Sexual Violence in Sports

“…For decades, the definition and operationalisation of resilience have been disputed [79], and as a result, scholars have written extensively about this psychological construct. The concept of resilience emerges from developmental psychology [80][81][82] and focuses on how individuals and communities overcome adversities and trauma [83]. More specifically, resilience is associated with human developmental processes that increase a person's sense of well-being when encountering adversities [84,85] such as positive life outcomes by actively focusing on engagement, purpose and perseverance [84].…”

“…So far, in the field of sports, resilience has been studied regarding sport performance. These studies focused on understanding psychological processes to overcome adversities in sports performance [e.g., [82,83]]. However, the presence of resilience to prevent or overcome the darker side of sports -experiencing sexual violenceremains limitedly explored.…”

Remembering Diana Scully and the Art of a Well-Asked Question

“…In 2023, I have a more nuanced understanding of generalizability and a greater appreciation of how and why Diana's research has had applicability across time, context, population, and setting. In the #MeToo social media outpouring (e.g., Bogen et al 2022; Whiting et al, 2021), and in interview studies with sexual assault survivors (e.g., Bedera & Nordmeyer, 2021; Carbone-López et al, 2016; Driessen, 2023; Lorenz et al, 2019), we continue to hear the same stories of power-based violence: rapists commit these acts by lying, deceiving, manipulating, abducting, kidnapping, isolating, punishing, hating, hazing, and shaming. In doing so, they gain status, acceptance, friendship, and pleasure.…”