Ongoing

Principal Investigator: Chelsea Kilimnik, PhD

Research Team Members: Sofia Barnes-Horowitz, BA; Kit Ganzle; Tatum Hendrick; Alexandra Liepmann; Donna Mejia, MFA; Sachi Rohilla; Meghan Densmore; Lori Brookman; Cass Lewis,;Sarah Bensreiti

Community Partners: Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance; CU Boulder, Office of Victim Assistance; CU Boulder

The Also Our Campus project is a community-engaged program of research that elevates the voices and lived experiences of individuals of minoritized identities on the CU Boulder campus around sexualized and identity-based harm. Understanding minoritized identity students’ experiences with safety, harm, and belonging on campus can help us leverage protective factors against these experiences and reduce the unique barriers to safety among these individuals. Collaboration with campus and community organizations allows for systemic insight into risk and protective factors, barriers and obstacles, and strengths that are critical for fostering a safe and inclusive community that allows for equitable access to education and well-being.

1. Elevate the voices and lived experiences of minoritized identity students in furthering our understanding of identity-related safety, belonging, and harm.  

2. Identify risk and protective factors, barriers and obstacles, and strengths that are critical for fostering a safe and inclusive community that allows for equitable access to education and well-being.  

3. Identify pathways of risk and resilience in students’ adjustment to college trajectories.  

4. Co-design a campus-based intervention with students and partners to leverage community in mitigating barriers to wellness and reducing disparities in violence and harm.

Mixed-methods approach: (i) phenomenological qualitative methods using trauma-informed focus groups and expressive writing to explore lived experiences of identity-associated safety and harm on campus; (ii) longitudinal quantitative approaches to explore relationships among identity, belonging, sexualized and identity-based violence, and their impacts on mental health (e.g., depression, PTSD), health risk behaviors (e.g., alcohol and cannabis use, sexual behavior), and academic success (e.g., class attendance, retention). Informed by this research, we will co-design and study the impact of a campus-based intervention for minoritized identity students focused on leveraging community for reducing disparities in violence, safety, and wellness.

Pending, in analysis and data collection phase.

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Budge, S. L., Domínguez, S., & Goldberg, A. E. (2019). Minority stress in nonbinary students in higher education: The role of campus climate and belongingness. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 7(2), 222–229.

Wilson, L. C., & Liss, M. (2020). Safety and belonging as explanations for mental health disparities among sexual minority college students. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 9(1), 110–119.

Strayhorn, T. L. (2021). Exploring ethnic minority first-year college students’ well-being and sense of belonging: A qualitative investigation of a brief intervention. American Journal of Qualitative Research, 6(1), 42–58.

Galán, C. A., et al. (2021). Exploration of experiences and perpetration of identity-based bullying among adolescents by race/ethnicity and other marginalized identities. JAMA Network Open, 4(7), e2116364.

Coulter, R. W. S., et al. (2017). Prevalence of past-year sexual assault victimization among undergraduate students: Exploring differences by and intersections of gender identity, sexual identity, and race/ethnicity. Prevention Science, 18(6), 726–736.

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Pittman, D. M., et al. (2017). The cost of minority stress: Risky alcohol use and coping-motivated drinking behavior in African American college students. Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse, 18(2), 1–22.

Wilson, S. M., et al. (2016). Minority stress is longitudinally associated with alcohol-related problems among sexual minority women. Addictive Behaviors, 61, 80–83.

Goldberg, A. E., et al. (2019). Trans students who leave college: An exploratory study of their experiences of gender minority stress. Journal of College Student Development, 60(4), 381–400.

Graham, J., & McClain, S. (2019). A canonical correlational analysis examining the relationship between peer mentorship, belongingness, impostor feelings, and Black collegians’ academic and psychosocial outcomes. American Educational Research Journal, 56(6), 2333–2367.

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Grocott, L. R., et al. (2023). Social support as a buffer of the association between sexual assault and trauma symptoms among transgender and gender diverse individuals. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 38(1-2), 1738–1761.