Campus climate factors associated with the likelihood of experiencing sexual assault in college

Objective: This study explored the association between campus sexual assault victimization and campus characteristics (e.g., enrollment size), student behavioral climate (e.g., binge drinking), campus climate (e.g., belonging), and diversity. Participants: The sample included 181,599 students (from 306 campuses) who completed the ACHA-NCHA III survey between Fall 2021 and Spring 2023. Methods: We used mixed-effect logistic regression to explore the association between campus-level characteristics and student experiences of sexual assault. Results: Various aspects of campus climate were associated with increased risk of experiencing sexual assault, such as higher proportion of students who reporting binge drinking or experiencing discrimination and higher average levels of campus loneliness. Other factors were associated with reduced risk of sexual assault, such as greater diversity of students on a campus. Conclusions: Findings suggest a need for campus sexual violence prevention programming to focus on campus-level factors and structural characteristics that create risk for sexual assault.