We have so far examined the typical acts of ethnoviolence and sexual harassment as well as the characteristics of those students who were the targets of these acts.
In this chapter, we focus on the psychological impact of these events as well as selected changes in the students' social and academic relations that followed. Our
objectives here are to demonstrate the impact of these events, to explore how this trauma is differentially affected by the type of incident and the ethnicity of the
victim, and to examine the particular trauma of verbal aggression (and particularly a subset, "hate speech,") since this is the most common-and perhaps the most
controversial-form of ethnoviolence and sexual harassment.

The primary data for this analysis comes from two forms of self-report. The first centers on the psychological and physical difficulties that were attributed to an
incident. This series of questions identifies standard indicators of post-traumatic stress. They were refined in a series of studies reported by Ehrlich, Larcom, and
Purvis (1994). Students were asked: "As a result of these incident(s) did any of these things happen to you?"

Lost a friendship

Had difficulty or broke up with spouse/significant other

Felt more nervous than usual

Had trouble waking up, slept more than usual

Tried to be less visible, not to let people notice you

Felt exhausted or weak for no reason

Became withdrawn

Had trouble concentrating; couldn't work well

Felt very angry

Wanted to hurt the people who hurt you

Lost or gained weight without intending to

Felt afraid of having more trouble in your life

Thought over and over again about the same problem

We also presented students with a second checklist, asking them if these incidents resulted in their making changes in their campus life. We asked them if they:
changed residence, dropped a class, changed major, changed jobs, avoided certain locations, or changed their social life.

There were 230 students who had experienced at least one incident of an ethnoviolent or sexually harassing nature. Fifty-four percent of the students responding
experienced at least one symptom, while 46% reported none (see Table 4.1). Among those reporting a post-traumatic response, the distribution of symptoms was
slightly skewed, with a median report of slightly over two symptoms but an average of four symptoms. The greater average is a consequence of the large number of
students who reported multiple symptoms. Forty-eight students, for example, experienced five or more symptoms.
The Stress Symptoms and Their Correlates

The symptoms reported by students, see Table 4.2, are typical of victims of traumatic stress. The three most common symptoms were thinking about the incident
repeatedly, feeling angry, and feeling more nervous than usual. About two-fifths of the victimized students had these reactions. There is, of course, a relatively limited
number of ways in which people respond to traumatic events. Having noted that, we need to ask if these stress responses vary by the nature of the act
(ethnoviolence or sexual harassment), the type of act (for example, being ignored or being threatened), the background of the victim (for example, Asian American
or African American), or by the number of incidents of victimization. We will take these up in order.

Nature of the act. There is no substantial difference in the stress response between victims of sexual harassment and victims of ethnoviolence. (See Appendix A,
Table A.4.1.) A slightly greater proportion of sexual harassment victims experience these stress symptoms than do ethnoviolence victims. This is true for 10 of the 13
symptoms, with the group differences for the other three symptoms being less than one percent. However, none of the differences exceed 7%, and the rank-order
correlation between the two distributions of stress symptoms is .91.

Type of act. Within the limits of our sample size, we were able to examine four categories of ethnoviolent acts: (1) physical assaults and property damage, (2)

depersonalizing, (that is being ignored or treated as if you were invisible); (3) hate speech (that is, verbal harassment or intimidation, insults, and name-calling in
person or by mail or phone); and (4) verbal threats.

The data show that the type of act has no significant impact on either the proportion of students who report a particular stress symptom or on the distribution of
symptoms themselves. Below, we display the ordering of major symptoms by the type of act. As our display indicates, there are no noteworthy differences in the
stress responses evoked by the different categories of ethnoviolent acts.

(1) Physical/property (2) Depersonalized (3) Hate speech (4) Verbal threats

nervous angry angry kept thinking

angry nervous nervous angry

kept thinking less visible kept thinking nervous

less visible withdraw feared trouble feared trouble

wanted to hurt wanted to hurt less visible less visible

feared trouble feared trouble wanted to hurt withdraw

Background of victim. Since different class and ethnic groups often reflect subcultural differences in the way they cope with conflict and stress, we thought that a
look at the background of student victims of ethnoviolence might be revealing. Because of the sample size and the low representation of the various groups, we were
only able to examine the stress responses of African American, Asian American and white students. Of these groups, 58% of the Black students, 56% of the Asian
American students, and 53% of the White students reported symptoms. As before, we can observe the dominant reports of anger, nervousness, and thinking over
and over about the incidents, trying to be less visible, and wanting to hurt those who hurt them. For 9 of the 13 stress symptoms, proportionately more Black
students reported the symptom. The average number of symptoms reported by Black victims is 4.6 as compared to 3.6 for Asian Americans and 3.9 for White
students.

There were some subgroup differences. (See Appendix A.) More African Americans victims responded with anger and nervousness than do other victims. Almost
one-fourth of them experienced weight problems, while ten percent experienced problems with sleep. In contrast, none of the Asian American students experienced
these physical problems of weight and sleep, but were the highest in impairments of social relationships. Over 20% reported losing a friend and having difficulty with
a significant other. The full significance of these subgroup differences remains to be determined, but they do have implications for programs of victim assistance and
counseling.

There were interesting and substantial gender differences as well. In 10 of the 13 symptoms, a greater number of women than men reported their occurrence. Twice
as many women as men reported feeling more nervous, trying to make themselves less noticeable, fearing more trouble, losing a friendship, and having difficulties
with sleep and weight. Men exceeded women primarily in their reports of revenge fantasies (wanting to hurt the perpetrator), and there only by a margin of ten
percent. (See Appendix A, Table A.4.2.)

Number of incidents. The number of ethnoviolent or sexually harassing events to which students are exposed seems to have an important effect on the number of
symptoms they suffer. Correlations are positive but quite low. The difference in the effect of a single incident and two incidents was substantial, but the difference
between two incidents and three or more was not as powerful. This is best seen in in graphic form in Table 4.3. This table also exhibits the difference between the
two categories of incidents. The largest increase, for both categories of incidents, is clearly a consequence of experiencing a second incident.
Lifestyle Changes

In this section we explore some very tentative data about student lifestyle changes. We regard the data as tentative because the respondents were apparently
confused by the pattern of questions we asked. What follows, then, are our impressions of some of the findings that seemed to emerge from the questions.

The types of victimization that resulted in the most changes were physical intimidation or threats and damage to a student's property. Those experiencing this type of
ethnoviolence were more likely to make changes in their lives than those who were ignored or verbally assaulted. Overall, the most common change made by all
types of victims was the "avoidance of certain locations." A substantial proportion of the students also indicated that they had made changes in their social life as a
result of their experience of ethnoviolence or sexual harassment. These lifestyle changes were related both to the number of incidents and to the number of stress
symptoms which students experienced.

One question in this series queried students about the effect of these incidents on "your ability to do your classroom work and your studies." About one-quarter of
the respondents said that the incidents had "some effect" or "a very big effect" on them. Black students and gay students seemed to be more affected than others.

The serious impact of prejudice-motivated victimization is sometimes masked by the fact that most students, as we pointed out in Chapter Two, do not report
incidents to college officials. The seriousness of the incidents is, perhaps, best comprehended by a look at those whom students did talk to. While only 9% of the
students reported the incidents to campus officials, 69% of them talked about it with their close friends and families. Surely this is an indicator of their concern.

Hate Speech

Because of the controversies over "hate speech" and its impact (see Lederer and Delgado, 1995, for a summary), we have given it special attention. In our hate
speech construct, we focused on verbal harassment or intimidation, insults and name-calling either face-to-face or by mail or phone. We eliminated the report of
"verbal threats" on two counts. First, because popular conceptions of hate speech do not include threats, and secondly because threats are generally covered under
criminal laws whereas most acts of verbal aggression are not. The problem for academic managers and for student affairs staff has been deciding what weight to give
to instances of hate speech on campus. Our data reveal that hate speech evokes the same pattern of trauma, and approximately the same proportion of students
reporting stress symptoms, as do other forms of ethnoviolence. While physical assaults and various forms of property damage may be more dramatic, it is clear from
our findings that verbal and symbolic forms of aggression are equally serious.

Summary

Being a victim of ethnoviolence or sexual harassment produces a clear traumatic response on our checklist in slightly more than half of the students victimized. The
major responses involve reliving the event, anger, nervousness and anxiety, fear, withdrawal, and revenge fantasies. About one out of four students had difficulty in
their classroom work and some experienced impaired personal relationships.

Women appeared to experience slightly more trauma but in the same pattern as men. This may reflect a gender difference with men being less open or willing to
express their trauma.

There appeared to be no substantial difference in the level of trauma reported by students of different ethnic backgrounds, although there was a definite tendency for
Black students to experience more symptoms.

Of greatest significance is our observation of the impact of multiple incidents. The experience of a second incident virtually doubles the average number of students
reporting trauma.

Finally, it should be clear that this study dealt with only a limited set of traumatic effects in a simple checklist with no attempts at probing for greater details or for
repressed feelings. Further, these responses are limited to campus incidents within the school year. The cumulative effects of a lifetime of experiences are
well-beyond the capacity of this small study.

Table 4.1. The number of symptoms reported by students.
Symptoms
Number
Percent
Reported none
105
45.7
One or more
125
54.3
One symptom only
30
24.0
2 to 4 symptoms
47
37.6
5 to 12 symptoms
48
38.4
Total
125
100.0

Table 4.2 The Stress Symptoms of Victimized Students
Reported symptom
%
Thought over and over again about the same problem or incident
40.6
Felt very angry
40.3
Felt more nervous than usual
39.7
Tried to be less visible, not to let people notice you
26.7
Felt afraid of having more trouble in your life
21.6
Wanted to hurt the people who hurt you
20.5
Became withdrawn
20.5
Had trouble concentrating; couldn't work well
18.5
Lost a friendship
12.9
Had difficulty or broke up with spouse/significant other
9.8
Lost or gained weight without intending to
9.8
Felt exhausted or weak for no reason
9.7
Had trouble waking up, slept more than usual
8.7

Note: The number of students responding to any specific item ranged between 194-197.