EVALUATION OF A SEXUAL ASSAULT RISK REDUCTION AND SELF-DEFENSE PROGRAM: A PROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS OF A REVISED PROTOCOL

The current study extends the development and evaluation of an existing and previously evaluated sexual assault risk reduction program with a self-defense component for college women ( N = 300). The program protocol was revised to address psychological barriers to responding assertively to risky dating situations, and a placebo-control group was utilized rather than a wait-list control group. Relative to the placebo-control group, the program was effective in increasing levels of self-protective behaviors, self-efficacy in resisting against potential attackers, and use of assertive sexual communication over a 4-month interim. Results also suggested reduction of incidence of rape among program participants over the 2-month follow-up. Implications for future development and evaluation of sexual assault risk reduction programming are presented.     

THE EVALUATION OF A SEXUAL ASSAULT SELF-DEFENSE AND RISK-REDUCTION PROGRAM FOR COLLEGE WOMEN: A PROSPECTIVE STUDY

The present study evaluated the efficacy of a sexual assault risk-reduction program that included a physical self-defense component for college women ( N = 500). Program group women significantly increased their protective behaviors over the 6-month follow-up period compared to the waiting-list control group. However, there were no significant differences between the two groups regarding rates of sexual victimization, assertive communication, or feelings of self-efficacy over the follow-up periods. Program group women who were victimized during the 3-month follow-up period evidenced less self-blame and greater offender blame for their assaults than control group women who were victimized following the program. Given that program women evidenced a greater awareness of sexual assault at the end of the study than control group women, the difficulty in addressing the impact of programming on rates of sexual victimization is discussed.     

STRUCTURAL MODELS OF THE RELATIONS OF ASSAULT SEVERITY, SOCIAL SUPPORT, AVOIDANCE COPING, SELF-BLAME, AND PTSD AMONG SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS

A number of studies have identified which survivors of sexual assault are more likely to develop symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Most correlates that have been identified have been at the individual level. Insufficient attention has been given to whether survivors' social interactions impact their individual responses to assault and subsequent levels of psychological symptomatology. In this study, a large, diverse sample of community-residing women ( N = 636) was surveyed. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships between assault severity, global support, negative social reactions, avoidance coping, self-blame, traumatic life experiences, and PTSD symptoms. The results suggest that negative social reactions and avoidance coping are the strongest correlates of PTSD symptoms and that the association typically observed between victim self-blame and PTSD symptoms may be partially due to the effect of negative social reactions from others. These reactions may contribute to both self-blame and PTSD. Implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.     

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES IN WOMEN'S SEXUAL ASSAULT EXPERIENCES BASED ON TACTICS USED BY THE PERPETRATOR

Only a few studies have examined the characteristics of sexual assault based on the tactics used by the perpetrator. In this study we compared the experiences of women who were forced to engage in vaginal, anal, or oral intercourse due to verbal coercion, physical force, or intoxication. Random-digit dialing was used to obtain a sample of 272 single African American and Caucasian women between the ages of 18 and 49 from the Detroit metropolitan area. Participants completed a computer-assisted self-interview that asked detailed questions about a past sexual assault and their reactions to it. Among the 139 women who were forced to engage in vaginal, anal, or oral intercourse, sexual assaults that involved physical force produced the most severe negative outcomes. Situations that involved the woman being too intoxicated to resist differed from others primarily in terms of how much alcohol the man and woman consumed. Although all types of sexual assault were perceived as being at least moderately serious, verbally coerced assaults were on average perceived as being least serious. These findings suggest that the perpetrators' tactics affect women's responses to sexual assault.     

THE SEXUAL ASSAULT AND SECONDARY VICTIMIZATION OF FEMALE VETERANS: HELP-SEEKING EXPERIENCES WITH MILITARY AND CIVILIAN SOCIAL SYSTEMS

A sample of predominantly low-income, African American female veterans and reservists seeking health care in a Veterans' Administration medical clinic was screened for a history of sexual assault since age 18. Overall, 39% had been sexually assaulted in adulthood. Those who had been sexually victimized were asked to describe one assault incident in detail: 38% described an assault that occurred during military service and 62% described one that occurred before or after military service. This study also examined victims' postassault help-seeking experiences and the degree to which they encountered "secondary victimization" (i.e., victim-blaming behaviors and practices engaged in by legal and medical personnel, which exacerbates victims' trauma). Most victims who sought help from the legal or medical systems (military or civilian) reported that this contact made them feel guilty, depressed, anxious, distrustful of others, and reluctant to seek further help. Secondary victimization was significantly positively correlated with posttraumatic stress symptomatology.     

PSYCHOLOGICAL OUTCOMES AMONG LESBIAN SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS: AN EXAMINATION OF THE ROLES OF INTERNALIZED HOMOPHOBIA AND EXPERIENTIAL AVOIDANCE

This study explored the relations among internalized homophobia (IH), experiential avoidance, and psychological symptom severity in a community sample of 72 lesbian sexual assault survivors. Results indicated that IH is associated with both experiential avoidance and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity. In addition, experiential avoidance is related to both PTSD and depression symptom severity. Finally, experiential avoidance completely mediated the relation between IH and PTSD symptom severity. The implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.     

A COMPARISON OF GROUP AND INDIVIDUAL SEXUAL ASSAULT VICTIMS

The experiences of 44 group sexual assault victims (multiple offenders, one victim) were compared with 44 individual sexual assault victims (one offender, one victim). Sexual assaults included various degrees of sexual victimization ranging from verbal coercion to rape. Participants were located from among a national sample of 3,187 college women. Group sexual assaults, compared to individual sexual assaults, were in general more violent, involved greater resistance from the victims, and were more likely to be perpetrated by strangers or relatives and to involve an experience which met the legal definition of rape. Group sexual assaults were less likely to involve multiple episodes by the same offender(s). Group sexual assault victims were more likely than individual sexual assault victims to seek police and crisis services, to have contemplated suicide, and to have sought therapy postassault. Despite these differences, the two groups were similar in the amount of drinking and drug use during the assault and their scores on standardized measures of psychological symptoms.     

PTSD SYMPTOMS AND SELF-RATED RECOVERY AMONG ADULT SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS: THE EFFECTS OF TRAUMATIC LIFE EVENTS AND PSYCHOSOCIAL VARIABLES

Prior research has demonstrated that self-blame is predictive of more posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and poorer recovery ( Frazier, 2003 ; Koss, Figueredo, & Prince, 2002 ), and perceived control over recovery is associated with less distress ( Frazier, 2003 ) in adult sexual assault (ASA) survivors. A structural equation model was tested to examine the role of traumatic events, self-blame, perceived control over recovery, and coping strategies on PTSD symptoms and self-rated recovery in women ASA survivors. Adaptive coping partially mediated the effects of other traumas, self-blame, and perceived control over recovery on PTSD symptoms and showed a small positive association with increased PTSD symptoms. As hypothesized, maladaptive coping partially mediated the effects of other traumas, self-blame, and perceived control over recovery on both PTSD symptoms and self-rated recovery; greater maladaptive coping was associated with increased PTSD symptoms and lower self-rated recovery. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

SEXUAL ASSAULT EDUCATION PROGRAMS: A META-ANALYTIC EXAMINATION OF THEIR EFFECTIVENESS

Meta-analyses of the effectiveness of college sexual assault education programs on seven outcome measure categories were conducted using 69 studies that involved 102 treatment interventions and 18,172 participants. Five of the outcome categories had significant average effect sizes (i.e., rape attitudes, rape-related attitudes, rape knowledge, behavioral intent, and incidence of sexual assault), while the outcome areas of rape empathy and rape awareness behaviors did not have average effect sizes that differed from zero. A significant finding of this study is that longer interventions are more effective than brief interventions in altering both rape attitudes and rape-related attitudes. Moderator analyses also suggest that the content of programming, type of presenter, gender of the audience, and type of audience may also be associated with greater program effectiveness. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

THE EFFECTS OF DEFENDANT AND COMPLAINANT INTOXICATION ON MOCK JURORS' JUDGMENTS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT

The present study investigates the impact of participant gender, rape-myth beliefs, and alcohol intoxication on the part of either the defendant and/or alleged victim on mock jurors' decisions within the context of a sexual-assault trial. Participants ( N = 152) were exposed to a sexual-assault case in which the beverage consumption (alcohol, cola) on the part of both the defendant and complainant prior to the sexual intercourse was varied systematically. Results indicated that when the defendant had consumed alcohol, as opposed to cola, participants were more likely to view the case as one of assault, to perceive the defendant as less credible, and to find the defendant guilty. When the complainant had consumed alcohol, as opposed to cola, participants found the complainant's claim less credible and were less likely to view the defendant as guilty. In addition, participants' rape-myth acceptance, which was related to guilt, mediated the relation between gender of participant and guilt.     

THE EFFECTS OF FRAME OF REFERENCE ON RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS ABOUT SEXUAL ASSAULT VICTIMIZATION AND PERPETRATION

Self-reports of sexual assault are affected by a variety of factors including the number of questions, question phrasing, and context. Participants (307 women, 166 men) were randomly assigned to one of two forms of a questionnaire. One form had the tactics used to obtain forced sex as the initial frame of reference, whereas the other form had the type of sex that was forced as the initial frame of reference. Seventy-five percent of the women who received the tactics-first version reported that they had at least one victimization experience since the age of 14, as compared to 62% of the women who received the type-of-sex-first version. Sixty-nine percent of the men who received the tactics-first version reported that they had at least one perpetration experience since the age of 14, as compared to 36% of the men who received the type-of-sex-first version. These findings have implications for how questionnaires should be designed to maximize reporting of sexual assault incidents.     

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.     

SITUATION-SPECIFIC ASSERTIVENESS IN THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF SEXUAL VICTIMIZATION AMONG UNIVERSITY WOMEN

Protective and risk factors for sexual victimization were examined in a sample of 274 undergraduate women. Assertiveness specific to situations with the opposite gender was protective at all three assessment times. Prior victimization, alcohol use, poor adjustment (as indicated by depression and anxiety), multiple sexual partners, and insecurity about relationships with the opposite gender were significant risk factors. Prevention efforts might be more effective if (a) behavioral practice of assertiveness was added to informational and attitudinal interventions; (b) assertiveness training focused specifically on relationships with the opposite gender; (c) medical and counseling services routinely assessed for prior victimization and other risk factors, and made appropriate referrals for women with victimization histories; and (d) alcohol education-programs were integrated with acquaintance-rape programs.     

THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG BODY IMAGE, BODY MASS INDEX, EXERCISE, AND SEXUAL FUNCTIONING IN HETEROSEXUAL WOMEN

Problems related to negative body image are very common among young women. In this study, we examined the relationship between women's body image and their sexual functioning over and above the effects of physical exercise and body mass index (BMI) in a sample of 214 university women. Low situational body image dysphoria and low body dissatisfaction were associated with high sexual assertiveness and sexual esteem, low sexual anxiety, and fewer sexual problems. Positive body image was significantly associated with better sexual functioning, even after controlling for BMI and exercise. Although related to body image, BMI and exercise did not predict sexual functioning. These results were interpreted as indicating that a woman's subjective body image is significantly related to her sexual functioning beyond the effects of actual body size and level of physical exercise.     

A FOLLOW-UP STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG TRUST,DISCLOSURE, AND INTERPERSONAL SOLIDARITY

This study conceptualized perceived trustworthiness of the individual, self-disclosure to the individual, perceived trustworthiness of people in general, and disclosive tendencies to other people in general to be indicants of a broader construct of trust. Self-disclosure and perceived trustworthiness of the individual were found to be related constructs assessing differential aspects of the trust construct. Likewise, self-disclosure and perceived trustworthiness of the individual were found to be criterial attributes of interpersonal solidarity. These communication-related phenomena indicated the solidarity of interpersonal relationships. In the progress of the research, a 20-item measure of perceived interpersonal solidarity was developed as a criterion for assessing the impact of communication-related variables on interpersonal relationships. Other exploratory research issues were investigated.