Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / Sexual victimization is a serious public health issue in the United States, particularly on its college campuses. Several attempts have been made to identify groups at high risks for exhibiting sexually aggressive behaviors. In the same vein, this study examines the relationship between athletic participation and sexual aggression with a focus on wrestlers. The author hypothesized that wrestling participation and athletic participation would be positively correlated with sexual aggression. However, it was also hypothesized that this relationship would be mediated by masculinity (gender role conflict) and masculinity related variables (sexual entitlement and competitiveness). A one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) followed by post hoc tests found no significant difference between Wrestlers and Non-Athletes on levels of sexual aggression at the Q = .05 level. Similarly, no significant differences were found between Other Athletes and Non-Athletes at the same alpha level. However, a near significant difference (Q = .058) was found between Multisport Athletes and Other Athletes. A regression analysis was also conducted, which found sexual entitlement, wrestling participation, and drinking intensity as significant predictors of sexual aggression. However, a partial correlation analysis found no mediating effects between wrestling participation and sexual aggression when sexual entitlement and drinking intensity were held constant. Recommendations for rape prevention programs were made based on these findings. / 2031-01-01

A relationship between childhood exposure to violence and the perpetration of sexual aggression in young adulthood has recently been established. In addition to replicating the relationship between these variables, this study also examined parenting style as a factor that may moderate this correlation. In this study, 903 college students completed an online survey assessing childhood exposure to violence, sexual aggression, and parenting variables. Childhood exposure to violence was correlated to the perpetration of sexual aggression in young adulthood. Also, the way in which individuals believed they were parented during childhood moderated the relationship between exposure to violence and sexual aggression. Both the optimal and affectionate constraint parenting styles significantly reduced correlations between exposure to violence and sexual aggression.

This study examined the independent and interactive effects of acute alcohol consumption, perceived alcohol consumption of a female confederate, and distal alcohol expectancies of intoxicated women, on sexual aggression. Participants were a diverse community sample (54% African-American) of heterosexual males (N = 156) between 21 and 35 years of age who were recruited to complete the study with a male friend and an ostensibly single, heterosexual female who reported a strong dislike of sexual content in the media. Sexual aggression was measured utilizing a well-validated laboratory paradigm in which participants viewed a sexually explicit or non-sexually explicit video clip as part of a contrived media rating task and made individual choices of which video clip to show the female confederate. Sexual aggression was operationalized as selection of the sexually explicit video, as opposed to the non-sexually explicit video. Results demonstrated that acute alcohol consumption, perceived female alcohol consumption, and distal alcohol expectancies of women’s vulnerability to sexual coercion and sexual drive while intoxicated, were not significantly related to sexual aggression utilizing the current paradigm. Post-hoc analyses revealed that the primary predictor variables were significantly related to participants’ perceived distress of a female confederate following an act of sexual aggression. Discussion focused on understanding what factors may have been relevant in understanding why the primary predictor variables were not significantly related to sexual aggression utilizing the current paradigm. Finally, clinical implications were explored in addressing a lack of perceived distress in potential female victims by individuals who endorsed higher levels of distal alcohol expectancies of intoxicated women’s vulnerability to sexual coercion and what potential interventions be utilized clinically.

Despite the increased attention devoted to sexual aggression among young people in the international scientific literature, Brazil has little research on the subject exclusively among this group. There is evidence that sexual aggression and victimization may start early. Identifying the magnitude and factors that increase the chance for the onset and persistence of sexual victimization are the first steps for prevention efforts among this group. Using both cross-sectional and prospective analyses, this study examined the prevalence of, and vulnerability factors for sexual aggression and victimization in female and male college students (N = 742; M = 20.1 years) in Brazil, of whom a subgroup (n = 354) took part in two measurements six months apart. At Time 1, a Portuguese version of the Short Form of the Sexual Experiences Survey (Koss et al., 2007) was administered to collect information from men and women as both victims and perpetrators of sexual aggression since the age of 14. The students were also asked to provide information on their cognitive representations (sexual scripts) of a consensual sexual encounter, their actual sexual behavior, use of pornography, and experiences of child abuse. At Time 2, the same items from the SES were presented again to assess the incidence of sexual aggression in the 6-month period since T1. The overall prevalence rate of victimization was 27% among men and 29% among women. In contrast, perpetration rates were significantly higher among men (33.7%) than among women (3%). Confirming the hypotheses, cognitive (i.e., risky sexual scripts, normative beliefs), behavioral (i.e., pornography use, sexual behavior patterns) and biographical (i.e., childhood abuse) risk factors were linked to male sexual aggression and to male and female victimization both cross-sectionally and longitudinally with the path models analyses demonstrating good fit with the data. The results supported: a) the role of the sexual script for a first consensual sexual encounter as an underlying factor of real sexual behavior and sexual victimization or perpetration; b) the role of pornography as “inputs” for sexual scripts, increasing indirectly the risk for victimization, and directly and indirectly the risk for perpetration; c) the direct and indirect link between childhood experiences of (sexual) abuse and male sexual aggression and victimization mediated by sexual behavior; and d) the direct link between child sexual abuse and sexual victimization among women. Few gender differences were found in the victimization model. The findings challenge societal beliefs that sexual aggression is restricted to groups with low socio-economic status and that men are unlikely to be sexually coerced. The disparity between male victimization and female perpetration rates is discussed based on traditional gender roles in Brazil. This study is also the first prospective investigation of risk factors for sexual aggression and victimization in Brazil, demonstrating the role of behavioral, cognitive and biographical factors that increase the vulnerability among college students. / Apesar do aumento da atenção dedicada ao fenômeno da agressão sexual entre jovens na literatura científica internacional, o Brasil tem pouca pesquisa no assunto exclusivamente neste grupo. Há evidências de que a agressão e vitimização sexual podem começar precocemente. A identificação da magnitude e dos fatores que aumentam a chance do surgimento e persistência de agressão sexual são os primeiros passos para a prevenção do problema. Usando delineamento transversal e prospectivo, o presente estudo investigou a prevalência e fatores de risco para a agressão e vitimização sexual em estudantes universitários de ambos os sexos (N = 742; M = 20,1 anos) no Brasil, dos quais um subgrupo (n = 354) participou em dois momentos separados por um intervalo de seis meses. Na primeira coleta (T1), uma versão em Português de Short Form of the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) (Koss et al. / 2007) foi aplicada para obter informações sobre experiências de vitimização e agressão sexual em homens e mulheres desde os 14 anos de idade. Os estudantes também foram convidados a fornecer informações sobre suas representações cognitivas de um encontro sexual consensual (scripts sexuais), seu comportamento sexual real, o uso de pornografia e experiências de abuso na infância. Na segunda coleta (T2), os mesmos itens de SES foram apresentados para investigar a incidência de agressão sexual no período de seis meses desde T1. Os resultados mostraram que a taxa de prevalência de vitimização foi de 27% entre os homens e 29% entre as mulheres. Em contraste, as taxas de perpetração foram significativamente maiores entre os homens (33,7%) do que entre as mulheres (3%). Confirmando as hipóteses, variáveis cognitivas (scripts sexuais e aceitação normativa de risco), comportamentais (uso da pornografia e padrões de comportamento sexual) e biográficas (história de abuso na infância) constituíram fatores de risco para agressão sexual masculina e vitimização sexual feminina e masculina, tanto transversal quanto prospectivamente. Os resultados demonstram: a) o papel dos scripts sexuais como um fator subjacente ao comportamento sexual real e à vitimização ou perpetração sexual; b) o papel da pornografia como "input" para os scripts sexuais, aumentando, direta e indiretamente, o risco de perpetração e, indiretamente, o risco para vitimização; c) a ligação direta e indireta entre as experiências de abuso (sexual) infantil na agressão e vitimização sexual masculina mediada pelo comportamento sexual e d) a ligação direta entre o abuso sexual infantil e vitimização sexual entre as mulheres. Poucas diferenças de gênero foram encontradas no modelo de vitimização. Os resultados desafiam crenças de que a agressão sexual é restrita a grupos com baixo nível sócio-econômico e que homens não estão susceptíveis à coerção sexual. A disparidade entre as taxas de vitimização masculina e perpetração feminina é discutida com base nos papéis tradicionais de gênero no Brasil. Este estudo é o primeiro com delineamento prospectivo a investigar o papel de fatores comportamentais, cognitivos e biográficos na etiologia da agressão sexual no Brasil.

<p>  </p> <p>Sexual aggression occurs at alarming rates on college campuses, wherein upwards of one-third of college women report some form of sexual victimization during their college careers. While individuals of any gender may perpetrate or experience sexual aggression, this form of violence is disproportionately perpetrated by men against women. Numerous risk factors for perpetrating sexual aggression have been identified, with prominent etiological, conceptual, and explanatory models of sexual aggression all emphasizing the role of impelling risk factors—which includes dispositional or personality traits that may serve to increase proclivity to sexually aggress, as well as attitudes, beliefs, and assumptions that contribute to sexually aggressive behaviors. Despite the proliferation of research on impelling risk factors for perpetrating sexual aggression, there is little consensus on how these constructs are operationalized and to what extent similarities and dissimilarities exist between existing measures of impellance for sexual aggression. Therefore, first aim of the present study seeks to examine the underlying factor structure of impelling risk factors for sexual aggression perpetration. Importantly, personality traits may represent an important non-specific impellor for sexual aggression; yet few researchers have examined the role of normal and pathological personality traits in predicting perpetration of sexual aggression, despite the robust literature on the role of personality in predicting other forms of aggression and violence. As a result, the present study also examined the role of both normal and pathological personality traits in independently and while controlling for the effect of emergent factors of impellance in predicting sexually-aggressive outcomes. Furthermore, exploratory analyses were conducted to examine the incremental validity of emergent factors of impellance above and beyond the role normal and pathological personality traits in predicting sexually-aggressive outcomes. Participants included <em>N</em> = 275 men between the ages of 18 and 26 from a large public university in the midwestern region of the United States, who completed an online survey assessing impelling risk factors for sexual aggression, normal personality, pathological personality, coercive condom use resistance, sexual-intimate partner violence, sexual assault perpetration, sexual objectification, and post-refusal sexual coercion. Results from the principal component analysis suggested that a three-factor solution best explained the variance in existing measures of impellance. Results from regression analyses indicated that normal personality significantly predicted all five sexually-aggressive outcomes, and that pathological personality significantly predict four of the study’s sexually-aggressive outcomes. After controlling for the effect of impelling risk factors for sexual aggression, both normal and pathological personality traits only accounted for additional variance not explained by measures of impellance for coercive condom use resistance and sexual objectification. Broadly, results identifying the underlying factor structure of impellance align with existing theoretical models of sexual aggression; however, results from the present study also extend these models by presenting a more granular, nuanced, and differentiated view of risk factors that were previously conceptualized to perform similarly. In addition, results from the present study underscore the importance of both normal and pathological personality traits in predicting sexually-aggressive outcomes. Despite this, results from the present study also suggest that after accounting for impelling risk factors of sexual aggression, personality may only help predict minimal additional variance in sexually-aggressive outcomes. Implications for both the screening and assessment of men at risk of perpetration sexually aggression, as well as recommendations for the prevention of sexual violence are discussed.</p>

The present study examined whether the resource-potential (RP) of a male dater (i.e., potential financial success and status) and/or respondent gender related to attitudes toward coercive sexual behavior by the male. Participants (59 males and 82 females) read a hypothetical dating scenario in which a heterosexual couple went out for dinner and then returned to the female’s apartment to watch a movie. The RP of the male dater was set at high and low. Following the scenario, rating scales posing increasing levels of coercive sexual behavior (a sexual advance, verbal persuasion, and physical coercion) were presented. The participants rated the likelihood and acceptability of each behavior on a 7-point scale. A 2 (respondent gender) x 2 (high or low RP) between-subjects multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed on the six dependent variables (DVs): the likelihood of the three coercive behaviors and the acceptability of the three coercive behaviors. The combined DVs were significantly affected for respondent gender and RP but not by their interaction. Univariate analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were performed on each DV. Significant differences were found between males and females on all DVs except the acceptability of a sexual advance. Significant differences were also found between the high RP scenario respondents and the low RP respondents for the likelihood of a sexual advance and the likelihood of verbal persuasion. For exploratory purposes, univariate analyses were performed and an interaction was found between respondent gender and RP for the acceptability of verbal persuasion and the acceptability of physical coercion. While all hypotheses were not fully supported, overall the present study yielded very promising results. First, additional support was given to the coercive sexual behavior literature by the finding that females find coercive sexual behaviors more likely while males find them more acceptable. Secondly, social equity theory was supported by the finding that high RP scenario respondents found the coercive sexual behaviors more likely than the low RP scenario respondents did. Finally, the finding that females were more accepting of coercive sexual behaviors from a male with high RP than from a male with low RP offers support to the mating strategy assertions of sociobiological theory.

Objectification and sexual aggression are common themes in pornography. However, there are only a handful of quantitative studies that examine the role of race in pornography that included Asian women, a population that has been fetishized extensively and historically portrayed as hypersexual in mainstream media. There were also no studies on the self-reported attitudes of viewers around this topic. 96 male university students took a survey measuring the frequency and perception of their pornography use, their acceptance of sexual aggression myths, their objectification of Asian women, and their propensity to agree with microaggressions about Asian women. Results indicated that while problematic pornography use had a moderate positive association with the objectification of Asian women and acceptance of microaggressions against Asian women, there was only a slight positive association between problematic pornography use and acceptance of sexual aggression myths. Results also indicated that the strength of one's acceptance of racial microaggressions against Asian women and their level of problematic pornography use positively predicted the likelihood of one's acceptance of sexual aggression myths.

Sexual aggression is a pervasive issue on college campuses, and many risk factors have been studied in an attempt to understand and reduce perpetration. In the current study, I focus on men's history of child abuse, romantic rejection, and sources of self-worth as potential predictors of sexual aggression perpetration. As part of an ongoing online cross-sectional study (target N = 600), data were analyzed for 72 college men. Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations were used to characterize the current sample describe patterns of relationships between study variables. Results indicate that all forms of child abuse were significantly positively associated with each other, but only child neglect was associated with romantic rejection experiences in adulthood. Child abuse was also negatively correlated with family, virtue, and competition of sources of self-worth. Although too few participants reported sexual aggression perpetration to conduct inferential statistical tests in the current sample, patterns of means indicate that child abuse was higher among men who reported perpetration.

This study was conducted to examine the experience of unwanted sexual aggression from both the male and female perspectives. Questionnaires were distributed to 325 students, and of these, 142 wrote free-response narratives describing their most sexually aggressive experience. Two raters scored and analyzed the narratives on the basis of 19 categories for male responses and 16 categories for female responses. Differences between the male and female perception of the experience of unwanted sexual aggression were found on several categories. The results of this study suggest that date rape awareness and prevention programs should emphasize the point that dating and sexual encounters can easily be fraught with miscommunication and misinterpretation, and encourage clearer communication and better understanding.

ANGLICKÝ ABSTRAKT Thesis Title: The SCORS Scale - An Assessment of Processing of Social Information and Object Relations of Men with Pathological Sexual Aggression Author: Mgr. Bc. Lucie Táborská Department: Department of Psychology Thesis Advisor: PhDr. Tereza Soukupová, Ph.D. Email of Thesis Advisor: tereza.soukupova@pedf.cuni.cz This empirical Thesis Essay titled The SCORS Scale - An Assessment of Processing of Social Information and Object Relations of Men with Pathological Sexual Aggression focuses on study of social skills of men with the diagnosis mentioned. The theoretical portion of the Thesis centers around the subject of sexual deviation as such, namely around pathological sexual aggression and projective methods; in particular, the TAT method and its specific SCORS scoring system. The fundamental research question was whether or not the answers of sample respondents would fall into the sphere of the pathological. Furthermore, the Thesis explores whether the differences between individual segments of the scale are significant or, on the contrary, corresponding. Subsequent examination of the phenomena follows. There were 20 participants in the survey, the individuals belonging to three different psychiatric asylums. D. Westen's SCORS was the method chosen for acquisition of data. The research has...