Predicting emotional abuse among a sample of college students (2020)

Excerpt:

More than two-thirds of the students in the current study reported they had viewed porn before; half of whom reported viewing pornography at least once in the last 30 days. Our finding is similar to the literature on pornography and college students.76,77  O’Reilly et al. reported over 90% of college students in their study reported viewing pornography. One unique finding from our study is that with each additional increase in pornography frequency score, the odds of reporting emotional abuse increased nearly 17%.

J Am Coll Health. 2020 Mar 24:1-9. doi: 10.1080/07448481.2020.1740709.

Spadine M1, Patterson MS1, Brown S1, Nelon J1, Lanning B2, Johnson DM3.

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to examine factors related to emotional abuse, an understudied type of intimate partner violence (IPV), among a sample of college students

Participants: 601 undergraduates from one large public university in the Midwestern United States (Spring 2017) and 756 undergraduates from one large public university in the Southern United States (Fall 2019) participated in the study.

Methods: Participants completed an online survey measuring demographic information, behavioral variables (viewing porn, alcohol consumption, and hooking up), and history of violence (witnessing a father abuse his spouse, emotional abuse history). Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression analyses predicting emotional abuse victimization were conducted.

Results: Results indicate female, white, older students were more likely to report emotional abuse. Also, students witnessing their father abuse his spouse, frequent pornography use, increased alcohol use, and frequent hookups increased odds of emotional abuse.

Conclusion: College campuses should consider emphasizing emotional abuse in IPV programing.

KEYWORDS:  College campuses; health education; intimate partner violence; prevention; psychological abuse

PMID: 32208068

DOI: 10.1080/07448481.2020.1740709