PONE-D-21-10525

COVID-19-related institutional betrayal associated with trauma symptoms among undergraduate students

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Adams-Clark,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Vedat Sar, M.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

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Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: This study (actually two studies) represents original research that has not been published elsewhere.

The Introduction adequately covers the available literature and demonstrates a good grasp of such literature.

The Methods sections for both studies, including the description of the study samples, measurements, data management and statistical analyses, are described in sufficient detail and demonstrate a good grasp of quantitative research methodology. Ethical aspects are adequately addressed.

The Results of both studies are presented adequately.

The Discussion of both studies interprets the results adequately in the light of the available literature. The conclusions of both studies are supported by the data.

The presentation of the article is neat, thorough and intelligible. The article adheres to appropriate reporting guidelines and standards for data availability.

The article makes an important original contribution to the existing literature on both institutional betrayal-related research and COVID-19-related research.

Reviewer #2: The manuscript, “COVID-19-related institutional betrayal associated with trauma symptoms among undergraduate students” presents two studies, both employing cross-sectional survey designs, to examine the prevalence of experiences of COVID-19 institutional betrayal among college undergraduates and to test hypotheses about associations between college students’ circumstances, experiences of institutional betrayal, and reported trauma symptoms. Findings suggest that over half of students report at least one type of COVID-19 institutional betrayal by their university and that COVID-19 institutional betrayal is associated with trauma symptoms and COVID-specific trauma cognitions. This paper is well-written and covers an important and timely topic. However, I had some concerns about conceptualization of COVID-19 institutional betrayal, the sample, and analyses. I’ve noted these concerns and others by major section of the paper below in hope that they may be helpful to the authors in refining their paper.

Introduction

• Although the authors provide a definition of institutional betrayal, it might also be helpful to provide a definition of what would count (and not count) as COVID-19 institutional betrayal. Some of the examples provided seemed rather broad. For example, the authors note that “Even those students at universities that have implemented strict, remote- only instruction may experience a sense of institutional betrayal regarding challenges related to remote learning and academic difficulties, which are exacerbated further by existing inequities.” While challenges of remote learning are certainly related to COVID-19, they seem quite different from things the university does that puts students at risk of COVID-19 infection.

• On page 5, I think “incidence rates of 12 types of COVID-19-related institutional betrayal” should be “prevalence rates of 12 types of COVID-19-related institutional betrayal” as the authors do not have data on new cases of institutional betrayal.

• Stronger theoretical justification could be provided for the a priori hypotheses tested in the two studies. For example, why would certain circumstances (e.g., living in a university town, knowing someone infected with COVID-19) be expected to be associated with institutional betrayal ratings? Additionally, although the studies examine intrusion and avoidance cognitions and make specific hypotheses about their associations with institutional betrayal, these cognitions are not defined or discussed in the introduction.

Studies 1 & 2

• I appreciated the detailed demographics provided on the Study 1 and 2 samples. Given that this samples were drawn from a Human Subjects Pool, it would be helpful to also include information about the extent to which the sample reflects the larger student population of students at the institution.

• In initially describing the COVID-19 institutional betrayal measure, it might be helpful to note that the wording of all items appears in Figure 1. When I reviewed the items, some of them seemed specific to COVID-19 (e.g., Created environment where transmission and safety violations seemed common or normal) but others seemed rather broad and could reflect COVID-19 related issues but also more general issues (e.g., Created environment where continued membership was difficult, Created environment where you no longer felt like a valued member). This speaks to my comments about how COVID-19 institutional betrayal is conceptualized in the study. This could be strengthened so that readers can more clearly understand your operationalization.

• Given that results did not differ without outlier procedures in either study, why was the decision made to cap outliers on the TSC?

• In both studies, I was curious why the authors did not control for race/ethnicity in their multiple regression analyses given that systemic racism can lead to disparities in experiences of trauma.

General Discussion

• The authors do a nice job presenting potential limitations of their study. It might be useful to also discuss potential issues with common method variance as both COVID-19 institutional betrayal and trauma symptoms are collected via self-report.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Jennifer Watling Neal

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PONE-D-21-10525R1

COVID-19-related institutional betrayal associated with trauma symptoms among undergraduate students

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Adams-Clark,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Oct 31 2021 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Vedat Sar, M.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #2: Thanks for the opportunity to re-review the manuscript, “COVID-19-related institutional betrayal associated with trauma symptoms among undergraduate students” which was resubmitted to PLOS-ONE. In this round of revisions, the authors were very responsive to my earlier concerns about conceptualization of COVID-19 institutional betrayal, the sample, and analyses. I think this paper makes an important contribution to the literature on institutional betrayal and have just one remaining minor comment (see below):

• I appreciated the additional context about the extent to which study samples reflect the larger population of students at the institution. Would it be possible to add information about the student population to Table 1 so that readers can directly compare sample to population demographics? This might require some reformatting to get everything to fit but I think this could easily be done if the variable names were only listed once in the table.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #2: Yes: Jennifer Watling Neal

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

COVID-19-related institutional betrayal associated with trauma symptoms among undergraduate students

PONE-D-21-10525R2

Dear Dr. Adams-Clark,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Vedat Sar, M.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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