Risk Factors,Self-Attributions,and Adjustment Problems Among Victims of Sexual Coercion1

College women (N= 125) were surveyed about their experiences with sexual coercion. Forty-two percent of the sample reported one or more coercive incidents involving completed intercourse (26%) or attempted intercourse (16%). Only 6% of these incidents were reported to police or campus authorities. Of the victims, 92% knew their assailants, at least casually. A combination of demographic, sexual history, and personality characteristics predicted 21 % of the variance in experience with sexual coercion. The variables most highly associated with reported victimization were frequency of sexual activity and religiosity; women who were more sexually active and who attended religious services less often were more likely to report experiencing sexual coercion than were women who were less sexually active and who attended religious services more often. A combination of situational and attitudinal variables predicted 52% of the variance in victim attributions. The variables most highly correlated with attributions were degree of victim assertiveness and the type of force used by the assailant; less assertive women and women who had been coerced by the use of economic or psychological force made relatively more internal attributions about the coercion incidents they had been involved in than did women who were more assertive and women who had been coerced by means of physical force. Finally, a combination of situational and attitudinal variables predicted 34% of the variance in victim-reported adjustment problems following the coercion incident. The use of economic or psychological force, greater physical injury, and relative acceptance of interpersonal violence were associated with more severe adjustment problems, whereas the use of physical force, less physical injury, and relative rejection of interpersonal violence were associated with less severe adjustment problems. The implications of these results for the reduction of acquaintance assault and for the counseling of victims are discussed.     

Sexual Violence Victimization and Associations with Health in a Community Sample of African American Women

Limited information exists on the relationship between sexual violence victimization and health among African American women. Using data from a community sample of African American women, we examine the association between current health and lifetime experiences of sexual violence. In-person interviews were completed in 2010. Among interviewees, 53.7% of women reported rape victimization and 44.8% reported sexual coercion in their lifetime. Victims of rape or sexual coercion were significantly more likely to report depression and posttraumatic stress disorder during their lifetime. Among victims whose first unwanted sexual experience was rape or sexual coercion, perpetrators were mostly acquaintances and intimate partners, and over one third were injured and needed services. More attention is needed on the health needs of African American women and their association to victimization status.     

Male and Female Recipients of Unwanted Sexual Contact in a College Student Sample: Prevalence Rates,Alcohol Use,and Depression Symptoms

It is typically assumed that acquaintance rapeand other forms of unwanted sexual contact involve malesas perpetrators and females as victims. The currentstudyinvestigated prevalence rates of experiencing as well as instigating sexual coercion, force,and other types of unwanted sexual contact for both menand women in a college Greek system. 165 men and 131women (82% Caucasian) completed 2 gender neutral measures of unwanted sexual contact, as well asassessments of alcohol use, alcohol related negativeconsequences, and depressive symptoms. Results indicatedmen were as likely to report being the recipients of sexual coercion as were women in thissample, although women were more likely to be thevictims of physical force. In addition, both men andwomen in this sample who had been the recipientsofunwanted sexual contactreported heavier alcoholconsumption and related negative consequences than didtheir peers who had nothad these experiences. Men whohad been the recipients of unwanted sexual contactreported more symptoms of depression than other men inthis sample, but there were no differences in depressionsymptoms for women who did or did not report theseexperiences.     

Sexual harassment of university students

The sexual harassment of junior, senior, and graduate student women and men by male and female professors, graduate assistants, and staff was investigated to determine students' personal experiences in the classroom, outside the classroom, and in job-related settings. Usable survey responses were returned by 393 students, and incidents were detailed by 38 women and 9 men who noted their responses to the harassment and its effects. Attitudes toward and acceptance of sexually harassing behaviors were measured by a 10-item Tolerance for Sexual Harassment Inventory (TSHI). The frequency of initiation of sexual behaviors was also assessed. More women than men reported being sexually harassed. Male and female perceptions of classroom behaviors were in agreement for most items. Men and women differed significantly on the TSHI, with men more tolerant of sexual harassment than women, and highly significant age differences were found, indicating a greater acceptance of sexual harassment by younger students. There was little difference between male and female students in the frequency of their initiating sexual behaviors. The TSHI was assessed; reliability coefficients and a factor analysis are presented.This research was supported by a grant from the College of Arts and Sciences. We are grateful to Betty Jones and Joan Bentley for their secretarial assistance.     

A COMPARISON OF MALE AND FEMALE COLLEGE STUDENTS' EXPERIENCES OF SEXUAL COERCION

Research comparing men's and women's experiences of sexual coercion has typically assessed differences in prevalence rates and risk. We extended this line of research by comparing the contexts of sexual coercion and reactions to sexually coercive experiences in an attempt to understand the meanings that men and women attribute to these events. Participants were 433 randomly selected college students who responded to an anonymous survey. In line with past research, more men than women reported being sexually coercive, and more women than men reported being sexually coerced in the preceding year. There was a great degree of correspondence between men's and women's reports of the contexts within which sexual coercion occurred. According to their reports, sexual coercion occurred primarily within the heterosexual dating context. Compared to men, however, women reported more negative reactions and stronger resistance to the use of sexual coercion. These findings emphasize how comparisons of prevalence rates alone may obscure important differences in the phenomenology of sexually coercive incidents for men and women. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for the development of education and prevention programs and the need to reevaluate current approaches to interpreting prevalence reports.     

Minority Stress and the Risk of Unwanted Sexual Experiences in LGBQ Undergraduates

Sexual assault is prevalent among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) college students, but its relationship to anti-LGBQ stigma has not been established. The goal of the present study was to determine whether minority stress, specifically internalized homophobia, predicted unwanted sexual experiences among LGBQ undergraduates (N = 763), whether routine behaviors (number of consensual sexual partners and alcohol use) mediated this relationship, and whether sense of LGBTQ community was a protective factor. Significant proportions of sexual minority men (10 %), women (18 %), and non-binary or transitioning students (19 %) reported an unwanted sexual experience since entering college. Internalized homophobia was associated with greater risk of unwanted sexual experiences. It also had a negative indirect effect on unwanted sexual experience risk through a negative association with number of sexual partners. Alcohol use did not mediate the relationship between internalized homophobia and unwanted sexual experiences. Sense of LGBTQ community was associated with lower risk, mediated by lower levels of internalized homophobia. The relationships between internalized homophobia and unwanted sexual experience risk were similar for women and men. These findings demonstrate that minority stress increases LGBQ students’ risk of sexual victimization and that in-group social relationships can mitigate this risk. We argue that minority stress is an important risk factor for sexual violence. Violence prevention interventions should attempt to reduce internalized homophobia, and colleges and high schools should establish LGBQ-affirming social climates and provide resources for LGBQ students, including targeted violence prevention efforts and programs that foster a sense of supportive community.     

Family Violence and Health Among Elderly in Croatia

This article presents the research carried out on a sample of 303 elderly men and women. In the last year they reported experiencing violence in the family as follows: psychological abuse (24.1%), financial exploitation (6.4%), physical abuse (4.4%), and sexual abuse (2.1%). The abusers were most often husbands (30.15%), sons (16.64%), daughters (14.01%), and wives (9.21%). In the partner relationship, 44%?of the women and 35%?of the men had experienced at least some form of violence. The results showed that elderly men and women who were victims of family abuse had poorer psychological health than those without such experiences. Elderly who had experienced partner violence consumed alcohol more often than those who had experienced violence by other household members.     

Verbal Sexual Coercion Experiences,Sexual Risk,and Substance Use in Women

Research has linked sexual assault, substance use, and sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk in women. Sexual assault by means of verbal sexual coercion (VSC) is more common than sexual assault by means of physical tactics, but VSC is rarely assessed independently. In addition, past work has established global connections among substance use, sexual assault history, and STI risk; however, assessing substance use during sexual behavior is less common. This study examined the relations among VSC, STI risk behavior, and substance use and attitudes. We hypothesized that women with larger numbers of VSC experiences would report more frequent sexual risk behaviors and substance use and attitudes. Participants with larger numbers of VSC experiences reported larger numbers of anal sex partners, more frequent penile–vaginal sex and sexual activity after substance use, and stronger sex-related alcohol expectancies. These findings suggest that VSC is associated with higher levels of STI risk in women.     

Strategies and Dispositional Correlates of Sexual Coercion Perpetrated by Women: An Exploratory Investigation

This research tests whether theoretical constructs typically associated with male perpetrators of sexual coercion are predictive of women who perpetrate sexual coercion. We administered a questionnaire that contained measures of sexual experience, social dominance, ambivalent sexism, sex roles, attitudes toward sexual harassment, and lovestyle approaches toward intimate relationships to a sample of women undergraduates. Results found 18% of women to report engaging in sexually coercive behaviors. Coercive women exhibited higher tolerance of sexual harassment, and were significantly higher in femininity than noncoercive women. Coercive women were also found to embrace a ludic (manipulative, game-playing approach toward love) lovestyle significantly more than noncoercive women, while pragma (a logical approach toward love) was negatively associated with coercion. Lastly, a significant difference was found between coercive and noncoercive women and self-reported victimization. Eighty-one percent of women who reported using coercive strategies in their relationships also reported having been sexually victimized.     

When Do Motives to Sexually Please a Male Partner Benefit Women’s Own Sexual Agency?

Motivation to please a partner sexually, also known as sexual communal strength (SCS), has been positively associated with sexual and relationship functioning, particularly for partners. We used a critical sexuality studies approach to examine SCS as it relates to women’s own sexual agency. We also examined the potential moderating role of partner sexual coercion, defined as persistent pressure to attain sex. Specifically, we investigated whether frequency of partner sexual coercion moderates the effect of SCS on three different aspects of women’s sexual agency: sexual desire, sexual refusal assertiveness, and relational power. Participants were 172 U.S. women in dating relationships with men who responded to self-report measures. Results showed that SCS was positively related to women’s own sexual desire, regardless of how often women experienced partner sexual coercion. SCS and partner sexual coercion frequency were associated with sexual refusal assertiveness: The least assertive women reported both higher SCS and more frequent partner coercion. Sexual coercion frequency was negatively related to women’s relational power, regardless of their own SCS. These findings support educational and clinical interventions to reduce sexual coercion and suggest the concept of SCS be further refined to better account for the potential roles sexual coercion and heterosexual norms play more broadly.

     

Sexual Coercion Among Students at the University of Cape Coast,Ghana

Sexual coercion refers to strategies that result in an individual engaging in sexual activity against his or her will. Ecological factors influence the way sexual interactions occur; however, the relationship between these factors and sexual coercion has not been explored among university students in Ghana. The purpose of this study was to examine sexual coercion among university students in Ghana by specifically examining individual-level factors (age, gender, sexual debut, age differential with first partner, being in an intimate relationship, history of abortion, and past experiences with transactional sex) and the experience of forced and coerced sex. Residential students at the University of Cape Coast were invited to participate and completed a survey on a tablet computer. Questions included demographics; sexual and reproductive health experiences and knowledge; and attitudes and experiences with abortion. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to examine individual-level factors associated with experiences of sexual coercion and forced sex. There were 480 females and 556 males that completed the survey; 26.3 and 16.4% reported having had intercourse either because they were forced or coerced, or when they were “very unwilling”. These students were more likely to be female (OR 3.5), to have had an abortion (OR 2.9), and to have engaged in transactional sex (OR 1.9). Many University of Cape Coast students are experiencing forced or coerced sex. Programs targeting both female and male students as both victims and perpetrators of sexual violence in this population are sorely needed. Primary prevention of sexual violence is one promising field.     

Differentiating Hostile and Benevolent Sexist Attitudes Toward Positive and Negative Sexual Female Subtypes

Expressions of hostile and benevolent sexism toward a female character whose behavior was consistent with either a positive (i.e., chaste) or negative (i.e., promiscuous) sexual female subtype were examined. Consistent with the theory that benevolent and hostile sexism form complementary ideologies that serve to maintain and legitimize gender-based social hierarchies, men expressed increased hostile, but decreased benevolent,sexism toward a female character who fit a negative subtype, whereas they expressed increased benevolent, but decreased hostile, sexism toward a female character who fit a positive subtype that was consistent with traditional gender roles. Furthermore, men’s sexual self-schema moderated expressions of hostile sexism across subtypes, whichsuggests that men who think of themselves in sexual terms (i.e., those who are sexuallyschematic) may be predisposed to (a) interpret information about women in sexual terms and categorize women into positive or negative sexual female subtypes on the basis of limited information, which leads to (b) increased hostile sexist attributions when womenare perceived as fitting a negative sexual subtype. These findings emphasize the role of both social dominance motives and the more subtle sociocognitive processes underlyinggender stereotyping in the expression of ambivalent sexism.     

Men's sex-dominance inhibition: do men automatically refrain from sexually dominant behavior?

Men receive conflicting messages about their sexual roles in heterosexual relationships. Men are socialized to initiate and direct sexual activities with women; yet societal norms also proscribe the sexual domination and coercion of women. The authors test these competing hypotheses by assessing whether men inhibit the link between sex and dominance. In Studies 1a and b, using a subliminal priming procedure embedded in a lexical decision task, the authors demonstrate that men automatically suppress the concept of dominance following exposure to subliminal sex primes relative to neutral primes. In Studies 2 and 3, the authors show that men who are less likely to perceive sexual assertiveness as necessary, to refrain from dominant sexual behavior, and who do not invest in masculine gender ideals are more likely to inhibit dominant thoughts following sex primes. Implications for theories of automatic cognitive networks and gender-based sexual roles are discussed.     

Men's heterosocial skill and attitudes toward women as predictors of verbal sexual coercion and forceful rape

This study assessed whether men's heterosocial skill and attitudes toward women are related to verbal and physical sexual coercion in a nonincarcerated population. We predicted that heterosocially skilled men would be more likely than unskilled men to have engaged in verbal sexual coercion, whereas unskilled men would be more likely than skilled men to have engaged in physical sexual coercion (i.e., forceful rape). We expected an interaction, with this pattern holding only for men who accepted traditional gender roles or male sexual dominance; men who did not accept these attitudes were expected to be unlikely to have engaged in either verbal or physical coercion. To identify sexually coercive men, we administered questionnaires to 1152 male introductory psychology students. They completed anonymous self-report measures of (a) heterosocial skill, (b) attitudes toward women, and (c) involvement with verbal and physical sexual coercion. Results showed that heterosocially skilled men were more likely than unskilled men to have engaged in verbal sexual coercion, but heterosocial skill was unrelated to forceful rape. Men who accepted traditional gender roles or male sexual dominance were more likely than other men to have engaged in both verbal sexual coercion and forceful rape. There were no interactions. Theoretical issues and treatment implications are discussed.The authors wish to thank Gayla Goolsby, Trudi Zaplac, Diane Collinge, Shelley Davis, Gina Benedicto, and DiAnne Poehl. This paper is based on the second author's Senior Honors Thesis, done as part of the Texas A&M University Undergraduate Fellows Program, which provided funding.     

A Mediation Model of Sexual Assault among Latter-Day Saints

Socialization that occurs within some conservative Christian contexts might facilitate development of attitudes and beliefs that increase women’s risk for sexual assault. Patriarchal community structure and rigid gender role adherence place women in subordinate roles and maintain gender inequality. Within conservative, dogmatic contexts, comprehensive sex education and education about assault might be minimal, and rape myths are hypothesized to be more prevalent. This study assessed sexual assault experiences (victimization and perpetration) in a sample of 208 male and female college students affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). Women reported victimization of all forms of sexual coercion at higher rates than men reported perpetration. In addition, traditional gender role adherence mediated the link between dogmatic, religiously fundamentalist beliefs and acceptance of rape mythology for both men and women. Traditional gender role adherence also mediated the link between religious fundamentalism and sexual assault behaviors for men.     

A Model of Racialized Sexual Harassment of Women in the UK Workplace

This paper examines Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women’s experiences of sexual harassment in the UK workplace from the perspective of frequency and types of sexual harassment and characteristics of the harasser; ethnic and cultural influences; power, fear of reprisals, and reporting behavior. Using a snowballing technique, in depth interviews with 17 BAME women who had experienced or witnessed BAME sexual harassment reported that they were frequently sexually harassed by men from the same ethnic background. The fear of job loss, reprisals from male family members and negative organizational consequences resulted in over three quarters of the women not reporting incidents. Key questions regarding the factors and influences that are inherent in racialized sexual harassment are integrated into a model.     

The Impact of Childhood Physical Abuse and Age of Sexual Initiation on Women's Maladaptive Posttraumatic Cognitions

Child abuse survivors often exhibit long-standing maladaptive beliefs. Sexual risk-taking could contribute to the maintenance of such beliefs by reinforcing cognitions that originally resulted from child abuse. In this study, 64 community women, most with elevated posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, completed measures of childhood abuse, sexual risk-taking, and posttraumatic cognitions. Age of first consensual sexual intercourse mediated the relationship between childhood physical abuse and maladaptive posttraumatic cognitions in adulthood. Thus, age of sexual intercourse initiation might play an important role in women's recovery from childhood physical abuse. Clinicians should consider the possible impact of women's sexual history when challenging their cognitions during trauma-based cognitive behavioral therapy. Further, decreasing risky sexual behavior might partially protect against the negative effects of trauma.     

Sexual jealousy: Gender differences in response to partner and rival

Young women (N = 64) and men (N = 52) were asked to imagine discovering that their romantic partner had been sexually unfaithful. Fewer men than women gave positive endorsements to sets of aggressive actions against the unfaithful partner and against the rival. Gender differences did not appear in the motive for taking action against the rival, but more men than women endorsed releasing frustration as the motive for aggressive action against the partner. The genders appeared equally interested in maintaining the relationship with the unfaithful partner, preventing future infidelity, and attracting another partner. More men than women said they were uncertain about their partner's sexual fidelity. The results were interpreted as evidence that women are devalued more than men by an act of sexual infidelity, resulting in men's greater frustration with the partner's transgression but relative behavioral indifference to both the transgressing partner and rival. Men's greater uncertainty about a partner's infidelity may provide the basis for, as suggested by other data, men's greater tendency to ensure that a partner's infidelity and consequent devaluation never occur. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.