-Caveat Lector-
http://www.washington.edu/newsroom/news/1999archive/
07-99archive/k072699.html
University of Washington
July 26, 1999
College men nearly as likely as women to report
they are victims of unwanted sexual coercion
The stereotypical picture of men as the perpetrators and women as
the victims of acquaintance rape and other forms of unwanted sexual
contact appears to be slightly out of focus.
Men are almost as likely as women to report unwanted sexual contact
and coercion, according to a new study of college students
conducted by researchers from the University of Washington's
Addictive Behaviors Research Center. The study, involving nearly
300 students, appears in the current issue of the journal Sex Roles.
Overall, 34 men (21 percent of the male participants) and 36 women
(28 percent) reported being recipients of one or more of five types
of unwanted sexual contact listed on a gender-neutral questionnaire
used by the researchers. The study also showed that men who
experienced unwanted sexual contact reported more symptoms of
depression than the other males in the study, although none met the
criteria for clinical depression. There was no difference in the
level of depression symptoms for women who said they were sexually
coerced and those who weren't. Women, however, were more likely to
be the victims of having physical force used against them.
The research, funded by the National Institute on Alcoholism and
Alcohol Abuse, grew out of a larger study looking at alcohol abuse
prevention among fraternity and sorority members. One of the
surveys used in the larger study by the UW researchers was a
standardized sexual experiences questionnaire that solely pictured
women as the recipients of coercion and men as the perpetrators.
"Our participants told us we were missing the boat when it came to
sexual coercion," said Mary Larimer, research assistant professor
of psychology and principal investigator on the new study, "so we
revised the questionnaire to make it gender neutral."
The revised survey asked the students -- 165 men and 131 women --
about their sexual experiences over the previous year. The
students were primarily freshmen and sophomores and were largely
white (82 percent) or Asian (13 percent).
Men were more likely than women to report that they had unwanted
sex or were pressured into having sex. The survey defined unwanted
sex as a situation in which an individual's partner became so
sexually aroused that the individual felt it was useless to stop
even though he or she did not want to have intercourse. Fourteen
percent of the men and 8 percent of the women said they had
unwanted sex. Being pressured into having sex was described as
having intercourse with someone even though you really didn't want
to because the other person pressured you with continual arguments.
Eight percent of the men and 6 percent of the women said they had
been pressured into having sex.
Physical force was used infrequently. Just 5 percent of the women
and less than 1 percent of the men said some sort of physical
force, such as having an arm twisted or being held down, was used
on them when they didn't want to have sex, whether or not
intercourse actually occurred.
Alcohol and drugs played a significant role in sexual
victimization. Seventeen percent of the women and 9 percent of the
men said someone had attempted to have intercourse with them when
they didn't want to after giving them alcohol or drugs. And 6
percent of the women and 4 percent of the men said they had sex
when they didn't want to after being given alcohol and drugs.
Overall, nearly half of the students -- 48 percent of the women and
47 percent of the men -- reported that drinking had gotten them
into sexual situations that they later regretted. In addition,
both men and women who reported being sexually coerced in some way
listed higher alcohol use and more alcohol related problems than
did students who were not coerced.
"Alcohol is clearly a major factor, but not the only one," said
Larimer. "Alcohol not only impairs the awareness of warning
signals about a sexual situation but it also impairs a person's
ability to resist an unwanted sexual advance. Both men and women
reported intentionally using alcohol and drugs to obtain sex."
She added that the male participants (and observing researchers)
described attending parties and seeing women waiting around until
"guys became drunk and then hitting on them when they were unable
to make rational decisions about having sex.
"All of this activity is unacceptable behavior and it is clearly
not consensual sex," Larimer said. "Both men and women are
experiencing unwanted sexual advances and our preliminary
indications are that men are suffering from those experiences just
as women are. I was surprised at how guilty and ashamed some of
the men were and that we, as researchers, were buying into a
cultural myth and didn't think such experiences were the same for
men as for women."
Co-authors of the study are Britt Anderson and Aaron Turner, UW
psychology doctoral students, and Amy Lydum, research coordinator.
###
For more information, contact Larimer at (206) 543-3513 or
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
.
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