Sex Role Ideology, Relationship Context, and Response to Sexual Coercion in College Females

This study examined the impacts of traditional sex role orientation and relationship context upon women’s responses to sexual coercion in a sample of 114 female undergraduates in the northwestern USA. We examined differences in the amount of time participants allowed a simulated sexually coercive situation to continue, comparing groups based upon the extent to which participants endorsed traditional feminine sex roles on the Sex Role Ideology Scale, as well as the context of the relationship in which such behaviors occurred, which was manipulated as an independent variable. Results indicated that individuals in the long-term relationship condition took significantly longer to terminate the vignette than did their peers. However, no significant effect of traditionality upon response latency was observed.