College Students' Perceptions and Willingness to Report Intimate Partner Violence

Past research suggests that college students perceive nonphysical (e.g., psychological) intimate partner violence (IPV) as less severe than physical IPV, but less is understood about how situational factors may impact perceptions of IPV. There is also less research on victim blaming across different types of IPV and IPV in non-heteronormative relationships. We used a mixed design with the type of IPV (control, emotional, intimidation, and physical) as a within-participants variable and alcohol presence and prior occurrences as between-subjects variables. Participants (N = 208) were college students at a regional Midwestern university. The participants were presented with vignettes depicting the different types of IPV and then asked a series of questions about perceived severity, the responsibility of the victim, and the responsibility to formally report. Gender-neutral names were used within the vignettes. The results show that participants found physical violence to be more severe than other types of violence; however, there was little to no effect of situational factors such as alcohol presence or prior incidents. The type of IPV had little to no effect on victim blaming. Participants were more likely to report physical IPV than psychological IPV. This research suggests that higher education institutions should invest in more education on nonphysical forms of IPV, which often leads to worse mental health outcomes despite student perceptions that nonphysical violence is less severe.