Campus Sexual Assault Prevention Education from Parents: A Qualitative Study of Undergraduate Perspectives

Campus sexual assault (CSA) continues to affect college students at high rates, yet the role of parents in providing prevention education before students begin college is not well understood. This qualitative study examines what CSA prevention education undergraduate students received from their parents and what they now wish they had learned after spending time on a college campus. 11 undergraduates at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were interviewed, and data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Three major themes emerged from this study: students received very limited CSA education from their parents, prevention messages they did receive were heavily shaped by gender, and most students were unsure what additional CSA education from parents should look like. Although participants had varying levels of sex education overall, CSA-specific conversations were rare. Parents tended to teach sons to protect female peers and daughters to fear strangers, reflecting common rape myths rather than the realities of CSA. Despite having limited knowledge about the issue, the majority of participants knew someone who had been sexually assaulted in college. These findings suggest a significant gap between the prevalence of CSA and the guidance students receive at home, highlighting the need for parents to engage in more comprehensive and accurate CSA prevention conversations before students begin college.