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The relationship of fear level and exposure to violence with the protective levels of response in college freshmen
Abstract
The purpose of this self-report research study was to examine the relationship of fear level and exposure to violence with the protective levels of response in college freshmen. The design of this study was a cross-sectional survey designed by the researcher. The survey had 57 questions. The population was American freshmen students enrolled in 17 introductory-level classes at a large land-grant university in the Midwest during the spring semester of the 1993-94 academic year. Permission was received from 36 faculty members to administer the survey to their class from a random selection of 141 class sections. A total of 1,875 surveys were distributed and 1,499 surveys were completed for a completion rate of 79.94%. Of the students who completed a survey, 878 were American freshmen. Internal consistency measures for fear level (alpha =.839), current victimization (alpha =.556), exposure to violence (alpha =.738), defensive level of response (alpha =.926), and offensive level of response (alpha =.677) were reported. Exploratory factor analysis was used to analyze each set of factors comprising the proposed construct. Forced order regression analysis revealed that 74% of the variance of a defensive level of response could be explained. Fear level accounted for 65% of the explained variance, and gender was able to contribute an additional 7% of explained variance, controlling for previous experiences of victimization and exposure to violence. Thirty percent of an offensive level of response could be explained. Exposure to violence accounted for 27% of explained variance of an offensive level of response. Support for the Differential Association Theory to explain the data was stronger for female college freshmen than for male college freshmen. There were different responses by gender; females were more likely to utilize a defensive response and males were more likely to adopt an offensive response. The fear level of females was three times higher than the fear level of males.
Subject Area
Criminology|Teacher education|Educational sociology
Recommended Citation
Asmussen, Kelly Jay, "The relationship of fear level and exposure to violence with the protective levels of response in college freshmen" (1994). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9500600.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9500600