Institutional trust and perceived social norms of changes to the Title IX policy predict sexual assault reporting intentions: A mixed methods study

Introduction: Sexual assaults often go unreported on college campuses, and unwillingness to report can harm victims’ mental health by decreasing their access to services. One variable which may impact sexual assault reporting is perceived social norms (i.e., what individuals think others believe). While a wide body of literature supports the impact of social norms on a wide array of college student behavior, little is known about how macrosystemic factors, such as policy change, affect social norms. One such policy change which may impact social norms related to sexual violence involves changes made in 2019 to the Federal Policy, Title IX, which raised the standard of evidence that victims must provide in order to make a formal complaint. Accordingly, the authors sought to examine the relationships between students’ knowledge of Federal Title IX policy, their awareness of changes made at the Federal level, their perceptions of their peers’ acceptance of these policies broadly, and willingness to report incidents of sexual violence to their specific campus’s Title IX office following these changes. Participants/Method:A sample of students at a university in the southeastern U.S. (N = 308) were surveyed. Results: Within our sample, slightly less than a quarter (20.4%) of students were familiar with the purpose of the Federal Title IX policy, and the majority (58.7%) believed their peers would have a neutral attitude toward these broad policy changes. Regardless of perceived social norms about the policy, individuals who believed that their university systemically responded inappropriately to Title IX incidents were less likely to report someone else’s victimization to the campus Title IX office (B = 0.753, SE = 0.211, β = 0.253, p < .001). Participants who believed others supported the changes to the policy were more likely to increase their reporting to the campus’s Title IX under the new Federal policy (B = 0.309, SE = 0.057, β = 0.364, p < .001). Students who believed others did not support the changes to the Federal policy were more likely to decrease their reporting to their campus Title IX office under the new Federal policy (z = 5.65, p < .001). Discussion: Implications for institutions & policy makers are discussed.