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Abstract

Colleges across the U.S. report alarming rates of student interpersonal violence, with estimates varying widely by measurement and sampling strategy, for sexual harassment (9-80%), sexual violence (4.7-58%), dating or domestic violence (18.5-30.3%), and stalking (12-17.4%) (Edwards et al., 2015; Fedina et al., 2020; Klein & Martin, 2021; McNamara & Marsil, 2012; Stoner & Cramer, 2019). Experiences of interpersonal violence often lead to negative consequences for college student victims including, but not limited to, greater academic hardship, depression, and anxiety (Banyard et al., 2020; Lysova et al., 2019). Increasing the probability of bystander intervention has gained attention as an approach to campus violence prevention (Campus SaVE Act, 2013). Recently, an individual’s relationship with their community has been theorized to impact their ability to enact bystander behavior in that community. In particular, perceived community influence and community connectedness have been shown to influence a bystander’s likelihood of intervening when witnessing interpersonal violence (Banyard et al., 2021; Edwards et al., 2014). Within the current study, I assessed the relationships among four community constructs: community connectedness, perceived community influence, self-efficacy toward service, and civic participation and their relationship to bystander action in multiple situations. This study used data collected from a UNC Charlotte campus climate survey (n = 2,332) to understand experiences with and reactions to situations of interpersonal violence. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to investigate a proposed two-factor structure (Community Belongingness and Community Service Orientation) of items derived from the four measures: community connectedness, perceived community influence, self-efficacy toward service, and civic participation. Results indicated goodness of fit to the proposed model. Exploratory CFA results examining the second-order and third-order structure found equivalent fit for the two solutions. Consequently, the hypothesized two factor second-order model was used for logistic regression analyses. Cronbach’s alpha for each factor was high, (αCommunityBelongingness = .88; αCommunityServiceOrientation = .90). Subsequently, Community Belongingness and Community Service Orientation, along with self-reported participant gender, were examined via logistic regression to predict bystander action in five situations of interpersonal violence. Community Service Orientation significantly predicted bystander behavior in four of the five situations assessed, while Community Belongingness did not significantly predict bystander action in any of the five situations of interpersonal violence. Community Service Orientation may be an important yet understudied mechanism of change for bystander intervention programs looking to increase bystander action in situations of interpersonal violence.

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