Campus climate surveys: Towards a unified approach to measuring campus rape and sexual assault

The purpose of this analysis is to develop a scale to better capture the campus climate with regard to attitudes supportive of sexual assault and rape. Using a 29-item questionnaire, this study examines principal dimensions within student attitudes to a broad set of issues related to rape and sexual assault. Our findings point to a factorial structure comprised of four main underlying constructs, each of which is related to one or more elements of campus rape and sexual assault, and, thus, should be captured by any instrument used to measure campus climate. Additional validation of the factor solution and the questionnaire is needed, including comparisons with other representative campus samples.