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Citation |
Tsui EK, Santamaria EK. J. Urban Health 2015; 92(3): 513-526. |
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Affiliation |
Department of Health Sciences, Lehman College, City University of New York School of Public Health, 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West, Gillet Hall 431, Bronx, NY, 10468, USA, emma.tsui@lehman.cuny.edu. |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 2015, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group) |
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DOI |
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PMID |
25644170 |
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Abstract |
The current attention that is being paid to college sexual assault in policy circles and popular media overlooks a critical issue: the possible role played by the urban social environment in intimate partner violence (IPV) risk for the large number of urban commuter college students throughout the USA and beyond. This article helps to illuminate this dynamic using qualitative research collected at an urban commuter campus in New York City. Specifically, we conducted focus groups and in-depth interviews with 18 female undergraduate students, exploring the nature and consequences of IPV in students' lives, perceived prevalence of IPV, and resources for addressing IPV. Our results indicate that college attendance may both elevate and protect against IPV risk for students moving between urban off- and on-campus social environments. Based on this, we present a preliminary model of IPV risk for undergraduate women attending urban commuter colleges. In particular, we find that enrolling in college can sometimes elevate risk of IPV when a partner seeks to limit and control their student partner's experience of college and/or is threatened by what may be achieved by the partner through attending college. These findings suggest a role for urban commuter colleges in helping to mitigate IPV risk through policy formulation and comprehensive ongoing screening and prevention activities. Language: en |