Bio

Sarah McMahon is an Associate Professor at the Rutgers University School of Social Work and Chancellor’s Scholar for Violence Prevention. She also serves as the Director for the School’s Center for Research on Ending Violence. Her research focuses on violence against women, with an emphasis on using ecological frameworks to examine prevention and social change. Dr. McMahon has extensive experience in designing and implementing quantitative and qualitative studies with college students to measure their knowledge, attitudes and behaviors related to sexual violence, with a focus on bystander intervention and campus climate. She has led a number of research projects related to campus violence funded at the federal, state, and local level. In 2014, she was invited to collaborate with the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault through the testing of a campus climate survey tool.  Dr. McMahon was appointed to the NJ Campus Sexual Assault Task Force and also serves on the Advisory Board for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. She has numerous publications on the topic of sexual violence and has presented her work around the country.

Courses Taught

  • Methods in Social Work Research I
  • Methods in Social Work Research II
  • Family Violence/ Violence & Abuse in Adulthood
  • Women's Issues
  • Social Welfare & Policies II- Violence Against Women & Children
  • Public Child Welfare Intensive Weekend Program- Family Violence & Research Methods

Selected Recent Publications

McMahon, S., Steiner, J., Snyder, S., & Banyard, V. (2019). Comprehensive prevention of campus sexual violence: Expanding who is invited to the table. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838019883275

McMahon, S. & Seabrook, R.C. (2019.) Reasons for nondisclosure of campus sexual violence by sexual and racial/ethnic minority women, Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice. doi: 10.1080/19496591.2019.1662798

Tredinnick, L. & McMahon, S. (2019). College coaches’ influence on student-athlete engagement in sexual violence prevention: Promoting readiness to help and awareness of campus resources. Sport in Society. doi: 10.1080/17430437.2019.1624723

McMahon, S., Treitler, P., Peterson, N. A., & O'Connor, J. (2019). Bystander intentions to intervene and previous sexual violence education: A latent class analysis. Psychology of Violence9(1), 117. https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000165

McMahon, S., O’Connor, J., & Seabrook, R.C. (2018). Not just an undergraduate issue: Campus climate and sexual violence among graduate students. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260518787205

Seabrook, R. C., McMahon, S., Duquaine, B. C., Johnson, L., & Desilva, A. (2018). Sexual assault victimization and perceptions of university climate among bisexual women. Journal of Bisexuality, 18 (4). 452-445https://doi.org/10.1080/15299716.2018.1485070

McMahon, S., Wood, L., Cusano, J., & Macri, L. (2018). Campus sexual assault: Future directions for research.  Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, online first, https://doi.org/10.1177/1079063217750864

McMahon, S., & Stepleton, K. (2018). Undergraduate exposure to messages about campus sexual assault: Awareness of campus resources. Journal of College Student Development59(1), 110-115.

McMahon, S., Stepleton, K., Cusano, J. O’Connor, J., Gandhi, K., & McGinty, F. (2018). Beyond sexual assault surveys: A model for conducting a comprehensive campus climate assessment. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 55 (1), 78-90. https://doi.org/10.1080/19496591.2017.1358629