Sexual violence against international Asian women in higher education: a qualitative exploration of experiences and coping
Embargo Date
2027-08-22
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
As Liu et al. (2016) highlight, international Asian women (IAW) experience a “triple threat” as women, racial minorities, and foreigners, making them particularly vulnerable to sexual violence in higher education institutions (HEIs) in the U.S. Yet, most of the current literature on the sexual violence of higher education students is on students who are White, heterosexual, cisgender, middle‐class, and U.S. citizens (Postel, 2020). The current qualitative study addressed this gap in the current literature by using an intersectional approach (Esposito & Evans-Winters, 2022) to explore the sexual assault experiences and coping strategies of IAWs in higher education. The research questions that guided this study were: (1) What are IAWs’ lived experiences of sexual violence in higher education?, (2) How do IAW students experience the impacts of these incidents of sexual violence?, (3) How do IAW students cope with their experiences of sexual violence?, and (4) Do ethnic, gender, or cultural socialization shape IAW students’ experiences of sexual violence or coping? A screener survey was used to confirm eligibility for this study which required participants to be (1) above the age of 18; (2) identify as an Asian woman, (3) enrolled in a university as an international undergraduate and graduate student at the time of the study, and finally, (4) open to discussing their experiences of sexual violence while in higher education in the U.S. Fifteen eligible participants complete semi-structured individual interviews, which were analyzed using and interpretative phenomenological approach (Smith et al, 2009). The study findings amplified the voices of IAW experiencing sexual violence in higher education, highlighted the need for systemic supports that promote IAW well-being pre- and post-experiences of sexual violence, and illuminated ways in which cultural socialization around gender, race, and foreign student status might leave IAWs multiply vulnerable to sexual violence. The data also demonstrates the critical need for IAW students to receive appropriate information and education, without which they are likely to continue to experience marginalization and repeated sexual violence. Consistent with the wisdom of intersectionality, this study is a reminder that gender identity alone does not determine the prevalence of sexual violence; rather, to better understand incidents of sexual violence, one must examine IAWs’ intersectional — and often marginalized — identities of race, gender, and international student status. The results have multiple potential implications for a broad audience including college health professionals, campus police departments, various Asian communities in the U.S., public health officials, and women’s health advocates working toward providing and improving existing resources to encourage greater disclosure of sexual violence and help-seeking behavior.
Description
2025
License
Attribution 4.0 International