(PS4-A6) Sexual Trauma Reporting to Universities: Institutional Betrayal, Mental Health Impacts, and the LGBQ+ Community

Institutional betrayal (IB) is a phenomenon that occurs when an organization, such as a university, violates the trust of its constituents by failing to prevent or sufficiently respond to acts of harm. This act of betrayal is especially common amongst survivors of sexual violence who are subsequently likely to experience heightened mental health difficulties and functional impairments.   Considering the higher rates of sexual victimization and marginalization of the LGBQ+ community, this population may be at greater risk for experiencing IB and related mental health outcomes.  The purpose of the current study is to determine if institutional response to campus sexual assault can impact mental health and functional outcomes. Results were obtained from over 2,000 university students in the Mountain West using the ARC3 (Administrator-Researcher Campus Climate Collaborative) Survey. Approximately 13% of individuals identified as LGBQ+ and of those individuals, 37% reported at least one experience of sexual assault while in college. A factorial ANOVA was conducted to examine the effect of sexual orientation and victimization on expectations for institutional response to campus sexual assault. Survivors were asked to rate university responses on several indices, whereas those who had not experienced an assault were asked to estimate how the university would respond on the same indices.  As predicted, there was a significant interaction such that heterosexual participants (M = 19.11) had higher expectations for supportive institutional responses compared to LGBQ+ participants (M = 12.81) among students who had not experienced a sexual assault, but there were no significant differences in valence of responses received by actual assault survivors across sexual orientation, F_(1,894) = 14.32, p < .01. Regardless of sexual orientation, survivors reported worse institutional responses than did heterosexual and LGBQ+ individuals who did not indicate experiencing sexual violence, meaning non-victims expect better from their university than do survivors.

Of the students who did report to the university, LGBQ+ students (M = 12.87) reported poorer institutional responses than did heterosexual students (M = 15.66), indicating that universities may not be providing the same level of support to already marginalized groups. Notably, main effects were evident for survivors who disclosed to the university, indicating poorer mental health (F_(1,701) = 8.99, p < .01), poorer life satisfaction (F_(1,701) = 3.54, p = .06), and greater academic disengagement (F_(1,701) = 3.62, p = .06) compared to survivors who did not report. These differences in outcomes are far more striking for LGBQ+ survivors across mental health (d = .90), life satisfaction (d = .79), and academic disengagement (d = .44). Implications for sexual assault prevention, response, and treatment will be addressed, in addition to discussing the use of cognitive and behavioral science to affect change in prejudice and stigma for sexual minorities.