Improving Access to Post-Sexual Assault Care for Survivors of Color, LGBTQ+ Survivors, and Survivors Living in Poverty

Click here to learn more

Does manner of drinking act as a mediator for emotional impulsivity and alcohol-related problems?

Learn more

University Students Who Report Exchanging Sex for Money or Other Compensation: Findings from a Public University Sample

Read here

The Center for Research on Gender and Women Colloquium Series

View upcoming events

Welcome to the PIVOT Lab!

Preventing Interpersonal Violence and Overcoming Trauma

What do we do?

The PIVOT Lab (PI: Kate Walsh) focuses on understanding the prevalence and contributing factors to sexual violence, with the aim of developing effective evidence-based prevention programs and interventions. One line of research focuses on identifying risk factors associated with sexual violence perpetration and victimization across multiple ecological levels (e.g., individual, interpersonal, and broader environmental/societal). Another line of research also addresses the prevention and treatment of negative consequences that often follow sexual violence victimization, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and substance use disorders.

If interested, click below

How do we do it?

We layer survey data with institutional and state policy data to understand risk for sexual violence and related harms (discrimination, harassment) and identify policy and community-based solutions. At the individual level, we also use experience sampling methods (i.e., daily diary methods) to understand temporal associations between alcohol and other substance use and sexual behavior, including sexual perpetration and victimization. 

Dr. Walsh and colleagues have developed a brief video that can be delivered to sexual assault survivors in the emergency department that is associated with reductions in PTSD, depression, suicidality, alcohol, and marijuana use and increases in perceived control among subgroups of survivors, including those with prior assault histories and those with pre-assault substance use.

​​For more information, see current research projects.

Who do we collaborate with?

Our research program is highly interdisciplinary, with collaborators within the Center for Research on Gender and Women, Institute for Diversity Science, and at the Department of Gender and Women Studies, Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work, and LaFollette School for Public Affairs. Dr. Walsh also has collaborators at Georgia State University and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where she is on the Executive Board of the Better Tomorrow Network.