Meet Our 2023 Lindsey M. Bonistall Research Fellows
Kamilla Bonnesen
Doctoral Student, Psychology Department, Georgia State University
Project: Understanding and Combating Cyber-Sexual Violence
Learn about our Fellow: I am thrilled to announce that I have been awarded the Lindsey M. Bonistall Research Fellowship Grant to support my research as a doctoral student in the Department of Psychology at Georgia State University. Allow me to introduce myself and share the exciting project that lies ahead.
My name is Kamilla Bonnesen, and I am deeply passionate about addressing the critical issue of gender-based violence. Together with my advisor and leading researcher in the field, Kevin Swartout, I have worked to uncover the risk of sexual violence across student populations and exploring the experiences of sexual minority students. With the generous support of the Lindsey M. Bonistall Foundation, I will be embarking on a groundbreaking study in the fall, focusing on the prevention of sexual violence perpetration and victimization within online contexts.
The prevalence of non-consensual dissemination of intimate images (NCII) is a concerning form of sexual violence that primarily occurs online. As we navigate the digital age, it is imperative that we develop a comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon and establish effective prevention strategies. That's precisely what my research aims to achieve.
By creating a measurement tool for online sexual violence, my study will shed light on the prevalence, typologies, and severity of NCII. This will provide invaluable insights for future research and policy development. Moreover, by identifying shared risk factors with in-person sexual violence, we can bridge the gap between online and offline forms of violence, ultimately propelling efforts to prevent all forms of sexual violence forward.
I am deeply committed to the mission of the Lindsey M. Bonistall Foundation and my research directly aligns with their vision of promoting safer environments and protecting individuals from the insidious threat of violence. With their support, I will be able to take the first step in developing intervention strategies, identify high-risk situations and climates, and pave the way for primary prevention measures that are currently lacking in the field of online sexual violence.
I am excited and grateful for the opportunity to embark on this research journey with the backing of the Lindsey M. Bonistall Foundation. Together, we can make a significant impact in the fight against online sexual misconduct and create safer spaces for individuals across college campuses. I look forward to sharing the findings of my study and contributing to the ongoing efforts to protect individuals from the devastating effects of sexual violence.
Doctoral Student, Psychology Department, Georgia State University
Project: Understanding and Combating Cyber-Sexual Violence
Learn about our Fellow: I am thrilled to announce that I have been awarded the Lindsey M. Bonistall Research Fellowship Grant to support my research as a doctoral student in the Department of Psychology at Georgia State University. Allow me to introduce myself and share the exciting project that lies ahead.
My name is Kamilla Bonnesen, and I am deeply passionate about addressing the critical issue of gender-based violence. Together with my advisor and leading researcher in the field, Kevin Swartout, I have worked to uncover the risk of sexual violence across student populations and exploring the experiences of sexual minority students. With the generous support of the Lindsey M. Bonistall Foundation, I will be embarking on a groundbreaking study in the fall, focusing on the prevention of sexual violence perpetration and victimization within online contexts.
The prevalence of non-consensual dissemination of intimate images (NCII) is a concerning form of sexual violence that primarily occurs online. As we navigate the digital age, it is imperative that we develop a comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon and establish effective prevention strategies. That's precisely what my research aims to achieve.
By creating a measurement tool for online sexual violence, my study will shed light on the prevalence, typologies, and severity of NCII. This will provide invaluable insights for future research and policy development. Moreover, by identifying shared risk factors with in-person sexual violence, we can bridge the gap between online and offline forms of violence, ultimately propelling efforts to prevent all forms of sexual violence forward.
I am deeply committed to the mission of the Lindsey M. Bonistall Foundation and my research directly aligns with their vision of promoting safer environments and protecting individuals from the insidious threat of violence. With their support, I will be able to take the first step in developing intervention strategies, identify high-risk situations and climates, and pave the way for primary prevention measures that are currently lacking in the field of online sexual violence.
I am excited and grateful for the opportunity to embark on this research journey with the backing of the Lindsey M. Bonistall Foundation. Together, we can make a significant impact in the fight against online sexual misconduct and create safer spaces for individuals across college campuses. I look forward to sharing the findings of my study and contributing to the ongoing efforts to protect individuals from the devastating effects of sexual violence.
December 2023 Update from Kamilla
Project: Understanding and Combating Cyber-Sexual Violence
We are excited to share the latest developments in our research, aimed at addressing the pressing issue of non-consensual dissemination of intimate images (NCII), a form of cyber-sexual violence. Our project seeks to establish a validated measurement tool for NCII and identify shared risk and protective factors across online and in-person sexual violence.
We have assembled an expert panel to provide valuable insights into the development of our measurement tool, ensuring its accuracy and effectiveness. Additionally, through active engagement, we successfully advocated for the inclusion of our scale in the gold standard campus climate survey, which will help standardize the measurement of online sexual violence victimization on U.S. college campuses. We are very excited about this development and hope to speed up our data collection process in order to incorporate the scale in the upcoming implementation of campus climate surveys.
Following data collection and analysis, we will refine our NCII measurement tool, understanding its latent structure and establishing construct validity. We will investigate shared risk and protective factors across modes of perpetration, shedding light on the connection between online and in-person sexual violence. Our goal is to promote this measurement tool to policy makers and researchers, ensuring that it reaches a broader audience to drive change in addressing cyber-sexual violence.
This research is crucial in making our campuses safer for all students, both online and in person. As online education and hybrid programs become more prevalent, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding and preventing NCII is of utmost importance. We are excited to share that we have been accepted to present at the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators' conference in the spring, where we will highlight the diverse experiences of violence among different student groups. This conference will be a great opportunity to raise awareness about the lethality of online sexual violence and help college administrators combat this new form of gender-based violence.
We look forward to providing further updates as our research progresses. Thank you for your support in our mission to combat cyber-sexual violence and create safer environments for students.
We are excited to share the latest developments in our research, aimed at addressing the pressing issue of non-consensual dissemination of intimate images (NCII), a form of cyber-sexual violence. Our project seeks to establish a validated measurement tool for NCII and identify shared risk and protective factors across online and in-person sexual violence.
We have assembled an expert panel to provide valuable insights into the development of our measurement tool, ensuring its accuracy and effectiveness. Additionally, through active engagement, we successfully advocated for the inclusion of our scale in the gold standard campus climate survey, which will help standardize the measurement of online sexual violence victimization on U.S. college campuses. We are very excited about this development and hope to speed up our data collection process in order to incorporate the scale in the upcoming implementation of campus climate surveys.
Following data collection and analysis, we will refine our NCII measurement tool, understanding its latent structure and establishing construct validity. We will investigate shared risk and protective factors across modes of perpetration, shedding light on the connection between online and in-person sexual violence. Our goal is to promote this measurement tool to policy makers and researchers, ensuring that it reaches a broader audience to drive change in addressing cyber-sexual violence.
This research is crucial in making our campuses safer for all students, both online and in person. As online education and hybrid programs become more prevalent, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding and preventing NCII is of utmost importance. We are excited to share that we have been accepted to present at the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators' conference in the spring, where we will highlight the diverse experiences of violence among different student groups. This conference will be a great opportunity to raise awareness about the lethality of online sexual violence and help college administrators combat this new form of gender-based violence.
We look forward to providing further updates as our research progresses. Thank you for your support in our mission to combat cyber-sexual violence and create safer environments for students.
April 2024 Update from Kamilla
Project: Understanding and Combating Cyber-Sexual Violence
Since our last update, a team of experts was collected to provide guidance and improvement for the scale, and we have officially started qualitative data collection with participants. We have also been invited to present at the international society for research on aggression. This summer, we will share our findings with a group of leading researchers and policy folks. This avenue will help us benefit from other scholars’ expertise and start disseminating our findings immediately.
Additionally, we attended the National Association of Student Personnel and Administrators conference (NASPA) in March. In an effort to promote our research and increase awareness about online sexual violence, we spoke to college administrators and education policy specialists about the influence of online violence on their campuses and what efforts are being made to support their students.
We look forward to continuing our efforts to making college campuses a safer place for all.
Thank you for your support in our mission to combat cyber-sexual violence.
Since our last update, a team of experts was collected to provide guidance and improvement for the scale, and we have officially started qualitative data collection with participants. We have also been invited to present at the international society for research on aggression. This summer, we will share our findings with a group of leading researchers and policy folks. This avenue will help us benefit from other scholars’ expertise and start disseminating our findings immediately.
Additionally, we attended the National Association of Student Personnel and Administrators conference (NASPA) in March. In an effort to promote our research and increase awareness about online sexual violence, we spoke to college administrators and education policy specialists about the influence of online violence on their campuses and what efforts are being made to support their students.
We look forward to continuing our efforts to making college campuses a safer place for all.
Thank you for your support in our mission to combat cyber-sexual violence.
September 2024 Update from Kamilla
Project: Understanding and Combating Cyber-Sexual Violence
We are thrilled to share the exciting progress we’ve made over the summer with our research project, and we are deeply grateful for the unwavering support of Peace Outside Campus and our dedicated participants.
Over the summer, our team successfully completed the qualitative analysis phase of our research. We had the privilege of presenting our findings at the International Society for Research on Aggression Biennial Conference, where we were met with a full conference room and received invaluable feedback from research peers and experts in the field of online sexual aggression. It was incredibly validating to hear from our qualitative participants, who expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to have their experiences represented and acknowledged as harmful behavior through our scale. Their positive responses reaffirmed the importance of our work and motivated us even further.
As we move into the fall semester, we are eagerly preparing to collect our quantitative data and embark on the second round of analyses. We are also excited to announce our collaboration with Rankin Climate, a renowned company specializing in sexual misconduct campus climate surveys. This partnership will allow us to disseminate our scale across the campus community this fall, ensuring comprehensive and representative data collection.
In addition, we are honored to have Dr. Katherine Masyn join our team for the data analysis phase. Dr. Masyn’s expertise will enable us to utilize the most advanced modeling tools currently available, greatly enhancing the depth and accuracy of our research.
We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to Peace Outside Campus for making all of this possible. Your support has been instrumental in advancing this important work. We are also profoundly grateful to our participants, whose insights and feedback have been both inspiring and essential to the development of our research.
We look forward to sharing more updates as we continue to progress, and we are enthusiastic about the impact this work will have on improving campus climates.
Thank you once again for your continued support!
We are thrilled to share the exciting progress we’ve made over the summer with our research project, and we are deeply grateful for the unwavering support of Peace Outside Campus and our dedicated participants.
Over the summer, our team successfully completed the qualitative analysis phase of our research. We had the privilege of presenting our findings at the International Society for Research on Aggression Biennial Conference, where we were met with a full conference room and received invaluable feedback from research peers and experts in the field of online sexual aggression. It was incredibly validating to hear from our qualitative participants, who expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to have their experiences represented and acknowledged as harmful behavior through our scale. Their positive responses reaffirmed the importance of our work and motivated us even further.
As we move into the fall semester, we are eagerly preparing to collect our quantitative data and embark on the second round of analyses. We are also excited to announce our collaboration with Rankin Climate, a renowned company specializing in sexual misconduct campus climate surveys. This partnership will allow us to disseminate our scale across the campus community this fall, ensuring comprehensive and representative data collection.
In addition, we are honored to have Dr. Katherine Masyn join our team for the data analysis phase. Dr. Masyn’s expertise will enable us to utilize the most advanced modeling tools currently available, greatly enhancing the depth and accuracy of our research.
We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to Peace Outside Campus for making all of this possible. Your support has been instrumental in advancing this important work. We are also profoundly grateful to our participants, whose insights and feedback have been both inspiring and essential to the development of our research.
We look forward to sharing more updates as we continue to progress, and we are enthusiastic about the impact this work will have on improving campus climates.
Thank you once again for your continued support!
Andrea Mariani
Doctoral Student, Department of Counseling Psychology, Indiana University
Project: Development and Validation of the Himpathy Scale: A Tool for Identification of Bias in Campus Sexual Assault Cases
Learn about our Fellow: I, Andrea Mariani was raised in Milan, Italy, until I moved to the United States at 17 as an exchange student during my senior year of high school. I attended the University of Colorado Boulder (Bachelor’s and Master’s) and the University of Colorado School of Medicine where I developed a passion for psychology research and practice. Currently, I am a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Counseling Psychology and a research assistant at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University — Bloomington where I research sexual assault victimization and perpetration under the mentorship of sexual consent and sexual assault victimization and perpetration expert Dr. Zoë Peterson. I hope that my work will effectively influence approaches to prevention of and response to sexual assault at the community as well as institutional level. My life is not all work: I am a proud partner and father of two young children, whom I adore and spend a lot of time with. I enjoy traveling with family, playing the drums (especially with my toddler), reading, and cooking (mostly Italian recipes).
Approximately one in five college women will experience sexual assault or rape while they are a student. Additionally, a robust body of research tells us that most of those sexual assaults will never be reported to police or campus authorities. While a variety of causes have been linked to such underreporting, improvements in campus community safety have been slow. One reason for this may be that we have not yet identified very crucial factors that create a campus community culture that facilitates underreporting of sexual assaults. We believe that one such factor may be himpathy: an implicit bias, held by anyone in the general population at varying degrees that may cause one to hold excessive sympathy toward a male perpetrator of sexual assault, especially when considered of high social status. Such bias may cause one to believe women survivors less, as well as to punish perpetrators less. The concept of himpathy has been recently coined by academic philosopher Dr. Kate Manne but has yet to be fully tested in psychological research. Therefore, this project seeks to develop a scale to measure himpathy (the Himpathy Scale) and to determine whether it can be decreased through educational interventions.
In order to detect things we haven’t been able to see we need to have the right tools: the Himpathy Scale would do exactly that. Ultimately, such scale could potentially have broad applications, such as on college campuses and in the legal system, that might increase reporting of sexual assaults through the development of institutional policies that empower victims of sexual assault and improve campus safety.
Doctoral Student, Department of Counseling Psychology, Indiana University
Project: Development and Validation of the Himpathy Scale: A Tool for Identification of Bias in Campus Sexual Assault Cases
Learn about our Fellow: I, Andrea Mariani was raised in Milan, Italy, until I moved to the United States at 17 as an exchange student during my senior year of high school. I attended the University of Colorado Boulder (Bachelor’s and Master’s) and the University of Colorado School of Medicine where I developed a passion for psychology research and practice. Currently, I am a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Counseling Psychology and a research assistant at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University — Bloomington where I research sexual assault victimization and perpetration under the mentorship of sexual consent and sexual assault victimization and perpetration expert Dr. Zoë Peterson. I hope that my work will effectively influence approaches to prevention of and response to sexual assault at the community as well as institutional level. My life is not all work: I am a proud partner and father of two young children, whom I adore and spend a lot of time with. I enjoy traveling with family, playing the drums (especially with my toddler), reading, and cooking (mostly Italian recipes).
Approximately one in five college women will experience sexual assault or rape while they are a student. Additionally, a robust body of research tells us that most of those sexual assaults will never be reported to police or campus authorities. While a variety of causes have been linked to such underreporting, improvements in campus community safety have been slow. One reason for this may be that we have not yet identified very crucial factors that create a campus community culture that facilitates underreporting of sexual assaults. We believe that one such factor may be himpathy: an implicit bias, held by anyone in the general population at varying degrees that may cause one to hold excessive sympathy toward a male perpetrator of sexual assault, especially when considered of high social status. Such bias may cause one to believe women survivors less, as well as to punish perpetrators less. The concept of himpathy has been recently coined by academic philosopher Dr. Kate Manne but has yet to be fully tested in psychological research. Therefore, this project seeks to develop a scale to measure himpathy (the Himpathy Scale) and to determine whether it can be decreased through educational interventions.
In order to detect things we haven’t been able to see we need to have the right tools: the Himpathy Scale would do exactly that. Ultimately, such scale could potentially have broad applications, such as on college campuses and in the legal system, that might increase reporting of sexual assaults through the development of institutional policies that empower victims of sexual assault and improve campus safety.
December 2023 Update from Andrea
Project: Development and Validation of the Himpathy Scale: A Tool for Identification of Bias in Campus Sexual Assault Cases
The main goal of the project is to develop a scale to assess degrees of himpathy, an excessive sympathy unconsciously extended to certain perpetrators of sexual violence, so that it can be used to decrease sexual violence on campuses and other communities through different mechanisms (e.g., selecting Title IX officers and individuals involved with development of campus policies to prevent sexual violence, selecting jurors and legal professionals involved in sexual violence cases, and many others).
The development of the Himpathy Scale has so far progressed as expected. Most of the work has involved the theoretical structuring of himpathy for scale development purposes and the writing of items (sentences) that can fully capture the construct. For example, what are sub-constructs
that make-up himpathy based on how it was first described? And what sentences would represent such sub-constructs? We included the following sub-constructs and came up with sentences to represent them: ‘centering the perpetrator’, ‘temporal sympathy’, and ‘loyalty to
perpetrator/willful ignorance’. After many rounds of edits, I am now collaborating with Dr. Kate Manne, who originally coined and described the construct of himpathy, to finalize the scale so that it can be used for my first study.
The next steps involve finalizing the scale based on expert review and submitting Study 1 for IRB approval. We seem to be on track to start implementing Study 1 in January and begin data collection.
The main goal of the project is to develop a scale to assess degrees of himpathy, an excessive sympathy unconsciously extended to certain perpetrators of sexual violence, so that it can be used to decrease sexual violence on campuses and other communities through different mechanisms (e.g., selecting Title IX officers and individuals involved with development of campus policies to prevent sexual violence, selecting jurors and legal professionals involved in sexual violence cases, and many others).
The development of the Himpathy Scale has so far progressed as expected. Most of the work has involved the theoretical structuring of himpathy for scale development purposes and the writing of items (sentences) that can fully capture the construct. For example, what are sub-constructs
that make-up himpathy based on how it was first described? And what sentences would represent such sub-constructs? We included the following sub-constructs and came up with sentences to represent them: ‘centering the perpetrator’, ‘temporal sympathy’, and ‘loyalty to
perpetrator/willful ignorance’. After many rounds of edits, I am now collaborating with Dr. Kate Manne, who originally coined and described the construct of himpathy, to finalize the scale so that it can be used for my first study.
The next steps involve finalizing the scale based on expert review and submitting Study 1 for IRB approval. We seem to be on track to start implementing Study 1 in January and begin data collection.
April 2024 Update from Andrea
Project: Development and Validation of the Himpathy Scale: A Tool for Identification of Bias in Campus Sexual Assault Cases
Since the last update we have finalized the structure of the Himpathy Scale by collaborating with Dr. Kate Manne, who first theorized the construct of himpathy, and we are now waiting for IRB approval of the study. Although we had hoped that by now we would have been collecting data, the IRB approval process has been slower than expected. We remain confident that data collection will occur rather quickly, given that we are using a very effective and validated online platform to do so.
To give a little more information about the scale, we have extrapolated three sub-constructs that make up the construct of himpathy and have developed items that attempt to capture those sub[1]constructs. We understand himpathy (excessive sympathy for certain perpetrators of sexual violence, mainly males perceived to be socially powerful) as including the following sub-constructs:
Since the last update we have finalized the structure of the Himpathy Scale by collaborating with Dr. Kate Manne, who first theorized the construct of himpathy, and we are now waiting for IRB approval of the study. Although we had hoped that by now we would have been collecting data, the IRB approval process has been slower than expected. We remain confident that data collection will occur rather quickly, given that we are using a very effective and validated online platform to do so.
To give a little more information about the scale, we have extrapolated three sub-constructs that make up the construct of himpathy and have developed items that attempt to capture those sub[1]constructs. We understand himpathy (excessive sympathy for certain perpetrators of sexual violence, mainly males perceived to be socially powerful) as including the following sub-constructs:
- Centering the perpetrator, which involves an unbalanced attention paid to the perpetrator that focuses on the preservation of the perpetrator’s wellbeing rather than the victim’s (an unconscious thought representing this might be “I want to make sure that the alleged perpetrator isn’t overly harmed by an accusation of sexual violence more than I want to address the victim’s needs”).
- Temporal sympathy, which involves thinking about the perpetrator before the victim.
- Loyalty to perpetrator/Willful ignorance, which involves a commitment (or tendency) to refuse the possibility that a certain perpetrator might have indeed committed sexual violence.
September 2024 Update from Andrea
Project Update: Development and Validation of the Himpathy Scale: A Tool for Identification of Bias in Campus Sexual Assault Cases
The last few months were fruitful for our research. We collected data from approximately 1,200 participants and completed the analyses required for our scale validation. Our results show that the himpathy scale has good internal and external validity. In other words, the scale is effective at
assessing himpathy, rather than a related construct (such as sexist beliefs, for example). We are in the process of running the last analysis, which will give us information about the predictive power of our scale. Specifically, we are trying to understand whether a higher score on the
himpathy scale predicts how one views allegations of sexual assault.
The followings are the questions that will be answered by such analysis:
In addition to this last analysis, we have started to write the first of two papers that will describe our study. This first paper focuses on the theory of himpathy and the evidence of the construct in the extant literature, and it highlights the need for a measurement tool. Our second paper will be focused on the actual study.
My plans for the upcoming year include applying for a conference where to present our results, finishing to write our theoretical paper and submitting it for publication.
The last few months were fruitful for our research. We collected data from approximately 1,200 participants and completed the analyses required for our scale validation. Our results show that the himpathy scale has good internal and external validity. In other words, the scale is effective at
assessing himpathy, rather than a related construct (such as sexist beliefs, for example). We are in the process of running the last analysis, which will give us information about the predictive power of our scale. Specifically, we are trying to understand whether a higher score on the
himpathy scale predicts how one views allegations of sexual assault.
The followings are the questions that will be answered by such analysis:
- Does a higher score on the himpathy scale predict more victim blaming?
- Does a higher score on the himpathy scale predict less punishment for the perpetrator?
- Importantly, are these phenomena dependent on the gender of both the perpetrator and victim?
- Does the himpathy scale do a better job at predicting the outcomes above compared to other related scales?
In addition to this last analysis, we have started to write the first of two papers that will describe our study. This first paper focuses on the theory of himpathy and the evidence of the construct in the extant literature, and it highlights the need for a measurement tool. Our second paper will be focused on the actual study.
My plans for the upcoming year include applying for a conference where to present our results, finishing to write our theoretical paper and submitting it for publication.
2020 Lindsey M. Bonistall Research Fellow
Dr. RaeAnn E. Anderson
Assistant Professor of Health Sciences, University of Missouri – Kansas City
Project: Empowering Indigenous College Women to Stop Rape: A Treatment Development Study
Dr. RaeAnn E. Anderson was raised in rural Kansas and now resides in Grand Forks, ND. In Grand Forks she leads the University of North Dakota Sexual Violence Prevention Laboratory – where she trains students, encourages them, and leads an interdisciplinary team focused exclusively on preventing sexual violence. It is the only research lab of its kind in the Great Plains and one of a small number in the entire country. She made it this far via great training and generous mentors at the University of Kansas (Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk, go KU! – Bachelor’s), the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (PhD), the University of Michigan/Ann Arbor VA Healthcare System (internship) and Kent State University (post-doctoral training). RaeAnn is the first woman on her father’s side to graduate high school, much less college, a fact she keeps in mind as she tries to make things easier for the students who follow in her footsteps. During her family time she enjoys hiking with her husband, letting her toddler explore the world, reading books, and crafting (especially feminist cross-stitching).
Empowering indigenous college women to stop rape: A treatment development study
Considering the entire US population of women, approximately 1 in 5 women will experience rape. This number is much higher for some, such as Indigenous women. Because of the large number of women who experience rape in the US; there are more women with rape-related posttraumatic stress disorder in the United States than there are veterans with war-related posttraumatic stress disorder. That’s the bad news. The good news is that with hard work and good science, we can prevent many of these cases of PTSD, and other rape-related problems. Good, comprehensive self-defense can reduce the risk of rape; yet Indigenous women have rarely been included in studies of self-defense. We also know that culture and tradition promote health for Indigenous people – connecting to the traditions and ancestors of the past is important when your traditional lands have been forcibly taken. Thus, this project seeks to explore how to incorporate Indigenous culture and traditions into self-defense programs to reduce the risk of rape for Indigenous women. Our team includes multiple Indigenous people and our first step will be meeting with Indigenous students on campus to hear how they think we can help prevent rape.
Assistant Professor of Health Sciences, University of Missouri – Kansas City
Project: Empowering Indigenous College Women to Stop Rape: A Treatment Development Study
Dr. RaeAnn E. Anderson was raised in rural Kansas and now resides in Grand Forks, ND. In Grand Forks she leads the University of North Dakota Sexual Violence Prevention Laboratory – where she trains students, encourages them, and leads an interdisciplinary team focused exclusively on preventing sexual violence. It is the only research lab of its kind in the Great Plains and one of a small number in the entire country. She made it this far via great training and generous mentors at the University of Kansas (Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk, go KU! – Bachelor’s), the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (PhD), the University of Michigan/Ann Arbor VA Healthcare System (internship) and Kent State University (post-doctoral training). RaeAnn is the first woman on her father’s side to graduate high school, much less college, a fact she keeps in mind as she tries to make things easier for the students who follow in her footsteps. During her family time she enjoys hiking with her husband, letting her toddler explore the world, reading books, and crafting (especially feminist cross-stitching).
Empowering indigenous college women to stop rape: A treatment development study
Considering the entire US population of women, approximately 1 in 5 women will experience rape. This number is much higher for some, such as Indigenous women. Because of the large number of women who experience rape in the US; there are more women with rape-related posttraumatic stress disorder in the United States than there are veterans with war-related posttraumatic stress disorder. That’s the bad news. The good news is that with hard work and good science, we can prevent many of these cases of PTSD, and other rape-related problems. Good, comprehensive self-defense can reduce the risk of rape; yet Indigenous women have rarely been included in studies of self-defense. We also know that culture and tradition promote health for Indigenous people – connecting to the traditions and ancestors of the past is important when your traditional lands have been forcibly taken. Thus, this project seeks to explore how to incorporate Indigenous culture and traditions into self-defense programs to reduce the risk of rape for Indigenous women. Our team includes multiple Indigenous people and our first step will be meeting with Indigenous students on campus to hear how they think we can help prevent rape.
Key Findings Update from RaeAnn:
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Many Indigenous families discuss rape in terms of when, not if. It is something that is so widespread and pernicious it is expected. The upside of that is, people know and care and want to change the ride. Indigenous college students we surveyed and interviewed are willing to try many different types of prevention strategies. We also found very few gender differences, Indigenous men see this as just a big a problem as Indigenous women and two-spirit folks.
Providers of prevention programs absolutely must account for historical trauma and how that has influenced the current context. Indigenous people know Pocahontas not by her Disney name and tale, but by her real name of Amonute. They know her as one of the first and not last Indigenous girls to be kidnapped and raped by White outsiders. The scars of this type of ongoing abuse and broader American cultural ignoring of Indigenous people still stings and has many wide-ranging effects from attacks on tribal sovereignty, the Indian Child Welfare Act, and the 60s Steal/boarding school abuses to current human trafficking and poverty on reservations. Conference Presentations (4): Cole, R. E., Armstrong, C., Barker, B., Blair, A., Cole, A. B. (2022, April). Empowering Indigenous College Students to Stop Rape: A Formative Study. Poster presentation submitted to the inaugural Oklahoma State University Undergraduate Research Symposium, Stillwater, OK. Armstrong, C.M., Unger, L., Cole, A.B., & Anderson, R. (2022). Empowering Indigenous College Students to Stop Rape: A Treatment Development Study. Poster presentation accepted to the 2022 APA Convention, Minneapolis, MN. Cole, A. B., Anderson, R., Unger, L., & Armstrong, C. M. (2022, January). Empowering Indigenous college students to stop rape: A treatment development study. Roundtable discussion presented at the 2022 biennial National Multicultural Conference and Summit, Santa Fe, NM (virtual). Anderson, R. E., & Hanna, A., (2021, November) Self Defense for Indigenous Peoples Study: Sovereignty for your Body - Psychology colloquium on Diversity Research at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Community Talk: Anderson, R. E., (2021, October) Self Defense for Indigenous Peoples Study: Sovereignty for your Body – introductory presentation to UND AISES club (American Indian Science and Engineering Society) Public Lecture: Anderson, R. E., (2022, April). Alcohol-Facilitated Sexual Victimization Among Indigenous College Students. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Rural Drug Addiction Research CenterSeminar Series. Lincoln, NE, USA. (virtual), www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL3x367aggk If you would like to read more, please click the links below, which include her findings on: |
February 2021 Update from RaeAnn
Covid hasn't slowed down our 2020 Lindsey M. Bonistall Research Fellow down at all. Read this update from her and her team!
"Since we selected this project in September 2020, the project team has expanded to include graduate and undergraduate students mentored by Dr. Anderson and her research partner, Dr. Cole. These students include members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and Dakota, the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and the Mvskoke Nation. In October 2020, the team received a grant from the state of North Dakota to expand the study to include a survey of Indigenous college students across the states of North Dakota and Oklahoma on what they think is needed in rape reduction programs. An Indigenous artist has been engaged to produce the study flyer. A key hurdle was recently cleared when IRB approval to collect the survey data was granted. The research team is well on their way to gathering data, in spite of the the COVID-19 pandemic! Thank you for all the support."
"Since we selected this project in September 2020, the project team has expanded to include graduate and undergraduate students mentored by Dr. Anderson and her research partner, Dr. Cole. These students include members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and Dakota, the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and the Mvskoke Nation. In October 2020, the team received a grant from the state of North Dakota to expand the study to include a survey of Indigenous college students across the states of North Dakota and Oklahoma on what they think is needed in rape reduction programs. An Indigenous artist has been engaged to produce the study flyer. A key hurdle was recently cleared when IRB approval to collect the survey data was granted. The research team is well on their way to gathering data, in spite of the the COVID-19 pandemic! Thank you for all the support."
November 2021 Update from RaeAnn
After COVID related delays, our Lindsey M. Bonistall Fellow, RaeAnn Anderson will be in Windsor, Ontario in the first week of December to participate in the train the trainer workshop for the self-defense program, “Flip the Script”. Dr. Charlene Senn, the leading Canadian expert in the area of self-defense in the face of sexual assault will facilitate the training. Recommendations specific to RaeAnn’s work with indigenous women will be provided by Dr. Senn, who will meet with RaeAnn in one-on-one session focusing on a detailed discussion of RaeAnn’s fellowship project. This training coupled with RaeAnn’s research and experience will position her to prepare local trainers to use this modality in their work with indigenous people in North Dakota and throughout the Great Plains and it is expected that workshops will be provided in April in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Significant progress has been made in the research, which continues to document the need for such a program and in determining the type of intervention most beneficial to indigenous women. 358 anonymous surveys have been completed to date. Participants were identified as indigenous college students across North America. Of this sample, only 17.88% did not report a history of sexual victimization. Follow up personal interviews are currently in progress although engaging participants has been challenging. Efforts continue in this regard and analysis of the data continues. The research has found that indigenous people are in fact open to a wide range of interventions to help them through the trauma of sexual assault.
Although COVID has impacted the goals of the project in terms of travel, initial presentations of the data are planned. Findings will be presented in December, 2021 at the University of North Dakota Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Showcase and other presentations are anticipated in 2022. Of note, congratulations are in order as RaeAnn was recently nominated for the National Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program in recognition of her important contribution to better serving the indigenous population of this country.
Significant progress has been made in the research, which continues to document the need for such a program and in determining the type of intervention most beneficial to indigenous women. 358 anonymous surveys have been completed to date. Participants were identified as indigenous college students across North America. Of this sample, only 17.88% did not report a history of sexual victimization. Follow up personal interviews are currently in progress although engaging participants has been challenging. Efforts continue in this regard and analysis of the data continues. The research has found that indigenous people are in fact open to a wide range of interventions to help them through the trauma of sexual assault.
Although COVID has impacted the goals of the project in terms of travel, initial presentations of the data are planned. Findings will be presented in December, 2021 at the University of North Dakota Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Showcase and other presentations are anticipated in 2022. Of note, congratulations are in order as RaeAnn was recently nominated for the National Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program in recognition of her important contribution to better serving the indigenous population of this country.
March 2022 Update from RaeAnn
We're excited to share new research from RaeAnn Anderson!
Her research has found startling statistics related to substance abuse and sexual assault:
Review more of her research below.
Her research has found startling statistics related to substance abuse and sexual assault:
- Indigenous college students were 4x less likely to report risky alcohol use.
- Of those who reported experiencing rape, 90% of the time it was alcohol-facilitated rape.
- Indigenous college students felt positively about peer-led substance use interventions like motivational interviewing and 12-step (AA) programs and also strongly preferred that these be offered in their communities, on indigenous lands
Review more of her research below.
December 2023 Update from RaeAnn
After years of research, RaeAnn and her team have published their findings!
“Resilience and Low Substance Use Among Indigenous College Students from a Sexual Assault Prevention Study” was published in the Adversity & Resilience Science Journal. Click here to read an abstract of their research.
Their study on acceptability of interventions is under peer review, and POC was given a sneak preview! Click here to read. They are also working with an Indigenous graphic designer to condense their findings into an infographic to make it accessible to the community.
RaeAnn and her team have also been busy presenting at the Society for Prevention Research, Society of Indian Psychologists, ResilienceCon, and the Northern Lights Conferences.
They are still hard at work during further analysis on the data from all their surveys, which will undoubtedly provide many more rich insights!
“Resilience and Low Substance Use Among Indigenous College Students from a Sexual Assault Prevention Study” was published in the Adversity & Resilience Science Journal. Click here to read an abstract of their research.
Their study on acceptability of interventions is under peer review, and POC was given a sneak preview! Click here to read. They are also working with an Indigenous graphic designer to condense their findings into an infographic to make it accessible to the community.
RaeAnn and her team have also been busy presenting at the Society for Prevention Research, Society of Indian Psychologists, ResilienceCon, and the Northern Lights Conferences.
They are still hard at work during further analysis on the data from all their surveys, which will undoubtedly provide many more rich insights!
April 2024 Update from RaeAnn
Having collected so much data over the past several years, our team is in the writing and analyzing phase. In addition to our published paper on Resilience which was published and presented at the Society for Indian Psychologists annual conference last year, we have completed another report entitled, Sovereignty For Your Body: Acceptability of Sexual Victimization Risk Reduction Interventions Among Indigenous College Students.
We have two additional papers in various states of progress. One paper is focused on the type of mental health interventions Indigenous students prefer for trauma and substance use concerns. Generally, we are finding that people find peer-led interventions for these problems acceptable and few genders differences – this is great news for making interventions more available in low resource settings! The other paper is from our interview data with Indigenous people, providing sexual violence and mental health related interventions. Cassidy Armstrong will be using data from the project for her dissertation focused on research mistrust and Indigenous college students, so there will be even more papers to come!
We have even more big news! My research team is moving to the University of Missouri, Kansas City School of Nursing and Health Sciences starting in August! We will be collecting data from 60-90 college women who are participating in either an Indigenized version of Flip the Script (Ashley and I’s study), a bisexual+ version of Flip the Script (one of my student’s dissertations), or the standard version on Oklahoma State’s campus starting this Fall!
We have two additional papers in various states of progress. One paper is focused on the type of mental health interventions Indigenous students prefer for trauma and substance use concerns. Generally, we are finding that people find peer-led interventions for these problems acceptable and few genders differences – this is great news for making interventions more available in low resource settings! The other paper is from our interview data with Indigenous people, providing sexual violence and mental health related interventions. Cassidy Armstrong will be using data from the project for her dissertation focused on research mistrust and Indigenous college students, so there will be even more papers to come!
We have even more big news! My research team is moving to the University of Missouri, Kansas City School of Nursing and Health Sciences starting in August! We will be collecting data from 60-90 college women who are participating in either an Indigenized version of Flip the Script (Ashley and I’s study), a bisexual+ version of Flip the Script (one of my student’s dissertations), or the standard version on Oklahoma State’s campus starting this Fall!
July 2024 Update from RaeAnn
Our team had a new research paper entitled, "Sovereignty For Your Body: Acceptability of Sexual Victimization Risk Reduction Interventions," accepted. The paper focused on survey findings on acceptability.
Plus, our presentation entitled, "Exploring the Acceptability and Preferences of the Delivery of Alcohol Use Interventions among Indigenous College Students," has been accepted by the 2024 Society for Prevention Research Conference in Washington D.C.
Finally, we are continuing our research! One of my mentees proposed an extension of the study for her dissertation, and it was accepted, along with a $10,000 grant to help fund it. They will be training new facilitators and starting recruitment for the Indigenized intervention this Fall! The study will be called, "Empowering Indigenous College Women to Stop Rape: A Treatment Trial."
POC wants to extend a huge congratulations to Dr. Anderson on her new position as Assistant Professor of Health Sciences in the School of Nursing and Health Studies at the University of Missouri – Kansas City!
Plus, our presentation entitled, "Exploring the Acceptability and Preferences of the Delivery of Alcohol Use Interventions among Indigenous College Students," has been accepted by the 2024 Society for Prevention Research Conference in Washington D.C.
Finally, we are continuing our research! One of my mentees proposed an extension of the study for her dissertation, and it was accepted, along with a $10,000 grant to help fund it. They will be training new facilitators and starting recruitment for the Indigenized intervention this Fall! The study will be called, "Empowering Indigenous College Women to Stop Rape: A Treatment Trial."
POC wants to extend a huge congratulations to Dr. Anderson on her new position as Assistant Professor of Health Sciences in the School of Nursing and Health Studies at the University of Missouri – Kansas City!
| sovereignty_for_your_body_acceptability_of_sexual_victimization_risk_reduction_interventions.pdf |
Update from our 2019 Research Fellow
Our 2019 Lindsey M. Bonistall Research Fellow, Margaret Campe, has been busy researching risk and protective factors linked to college campus sexual assault. Through her research, she hopes to provide tangible policy recommendations for prevention and intervention. Margaret finished her dissertation in the Spring of 2019. She went on to publish her research in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence and presented her research at the Disability Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems in New York. Read a summary of her research on our blog and find out what she discovered regarding the link between sexual assault and disabilities.
