TPC-Journal-V5-Issue3

The Professional Counselor /Volume 5, Issue 3 369 well as contacting various departments and programs requesting that they send study information to students on their e-mail listserv. All eligible students were invited to complete the assessment packet online using Survey Monkey. Students began the survey by reading the study information form, which included a warning about the sensitive nature of the questions. At the conclusion of the survey, we provided all participants with a list of domestic violence resources. Recruitment efforts resulted in 155 students attempting to complete the survey. However, we removed 17 participants, 11 of whom indicated an age of 26 or older (making them ineligible) and six of whom did not complete any of the survey questions. We did not offer any incentives for survey completion as participation was voluntary, but it is possible that instructors provided incentives of their own accord. Instructor-initiated incentives could explain the six participants who did not answer any questions. Therefore, the total sample for the study was 138 participants. Eighty-six participants (62%) indicated currently being in a relationship, with relationships lasting an average of 30 months. Others were recently in a relationship ( n = 49; three participants did not indicate relationship status), reporting an average of 20 months since their last relationship. Women ( n = 119; 87%) comprised the majority of the sample. The sample included mostly heterosexual participants ( n = 127), with some same-sex participants ( n = 10; one person did not report). Participants ranged in grade level; most were graduate students ( n = 48; 35%), followed by seniors ( n = 42; 30%), juniors ( n = 28; 20%), sophomores ( n = 17; 12%) and freshmen ( n = 3; 2%). See Table 1 for additional demographic information and descriptive statistics for constructs of interest. Table 1 Descriptive Statistics for Study Constructs Constructs M SD Range Age 21.45 1.53 18–25 Credit hours 14.67 3.04 3–23 Perceived stress (PSS) 6.31 2.77 1–13 Intimate justice (IJS) 26.97 10.96 15–64 Acceptance of violence (ACV) 5.61 1.22 5–12 Use of technology (UTR) 8.96 1.15 5–10 Note . M = mean; SD = standard deviation; PSS = Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983; Cohen & Williamson, 1988); IJS = Intimate Justice Scale (Jory, 2004); ACV = Acceptance of Couple Violence (Foshee, Fothergill, & Stuart, 1992); UTR = Use of Technology in Relationships (Draucker & Martsolf, 2010; Schnurr et al., 2013). Instruments Demographic information. The demographic information form consisted of 13 questions and asked participants about basic information such as age, gender, grade, current relationship status, length of relationship (if current) and length of previous relationship (as well as length of time since previous relationship). Participants completed the demographic information form prior to completing the other study assessments.