ElmCore Journal of Educational Psychology October, 2014 | Page 5

Team reveals sexual violence in school occurs early on

Professor Dorothy Espelage and her team of
researchers in the Department of Educational
Psychology found that more than one in five children
in middle school have experienced physical sexual
violence. The findings were published in the article
“Sexual Risk Taking and Bullying Among
Adolescents,” which won the American Educational
Research Association Division E Distinguished
Research Award. News of the award-winning study
was circulated nationwide by publications such as
U.S. News & World Report, Medical Xpress, and
The Huffington Post.

A sizeable amount of sexual violence in middle school occurs directly in front of teachers, according to a study,
which also found that one in four middle school students said they have faced a form of sexual violence on middle
school grounds in the past year, usually in the hallways or classrooms. Nearly 1,400 students were surveyed: 27