Feminine ideology and sexual assault: are more traditional college women at greater risk?

Factors Associated with Unwanted Sexual Attention in Australian Nightlife Districts: An Exploratory Study of Nightlife Attendees

BACKGROUND

Experiences of unwanted sexual attention (UWSA) are commonplace within nightlife environments. While typically associated with aggression perpetration, literature has suggested that a history of childhood corporal punishment (CCP) may also be related to experiences of victimisation in nightlife environments. The current exploratory study aims to examine the associations between experiences of UWSA victimisation and a history of CCP, trait aggression, and conformity to masculine norms (Playboy and Winning), for males and females separately.

METHOD

Street intercept interviews in the Brisbane inner-city entertainment precincts were used to measure demographic details and participants' breath alcohol concentration. Online follow-up surveys were used to record participants' experiences of UWSA on the night of interview, history of CCP, and self-reported rates of trait aggression and conformity to masculine norms. The final sample consisted of 288 females, as there were not sufficient male UWSA experiences for analysis.

RESULTS

Approximately 20% of female nightlife patrons experienced some form of UWSA victimisation. Logistic regression analyses identified that after controlling for age and intoxication, a history of CCP, trait aggression and masculine norm conformity were unrelated to experiences of UWSA for female respondents.

CONCLUSIONS

The current study found that individual factors were unrelated to experiences of UWSA, indicating that simply being in the nightlife environment, especially as a female, increases the risk of UWSA victimisation. Understanding and exploring social and environmental risk factors, rather than individual factors, is needed to prevent victimisation in nightlife environments.

Violência de gênero em mulheres estudantes universitárias: evidências sobre a prevalência e sobre os fatores associados

A violência de gênero contra as mulheres está relacionada à desigualdade de gênero. Ela é compreendida como a ruptura de qualquer forma de integridade da mulher — física, sexual, psicológica, patrimonial, econômica ou moral — e pode ocorrer tanto no âmbito privado-familiar como nos espaços de trabalho e públicos. A violência de gênero repercute na saúde e na qualidade de vida das mulheres em qualquer âmbito social. No caso deste estudo, ela foi analisada no ambiente universitário e no desenvolvimento acadêmico delas. Nesse sentido, o presente estudo objetivou analisar as evidências acerca da prevalência da violência de gênero em mulheres estudantes universitárias e seus fatores associados. Trata-se de uma revisão integrativa da literatura realizada nas bases de dados LILACS, PubMed, CINAHL, ERIC e ASSIA, em que 22 artigos atenderam aos critérios de seleção. As evidências disponíveis na literatura indicaram diferentes formas de violência de gênero em mulheres universitárias, perpetradas por parceiros íntimos e outros agressores. A prevalência de violência de gênero em mulheres estudantes universitárias apontada nos estudos variou entre 1,3% e 85%, diferindo de acordo com o tipo de violência. A violência está associada com fatores sociais e comportamentais, uma vez que as estudantes mais jovens apresentaram maiores índices de violência, assim como as de raça/etnia não branca, as que se identificavam como homossexuais ou bissexuais e as que tinham histórico de vitimização anterior. Evidências sobre o uso de álcool e outras drogas por parte das mulheres e a participação em irmandades sociais diferiram de acordo com o tipo de violência. Assim, conclui-se que a prevalência da violência de gênero na população de mulheres estudantes universitárias varia de acordo com a sua tipificação, é majoritariamente perpetrada por homens próximos a elas e está associada com marcadores sociais.

The Detrimental Effect of Sexual Objectification on Targets' and Perpetrators' Sexual Satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Sexual Coercion

Sexual objectification is a variable to consider for understanding the sexual violence that takes place into intimate context. The set of studies presented here aims to connect sexual objectification phenomena with sexual coercion and explore the consequences that both have on sexual satisfaction. Two studies examined the association between sexual objectification and sexual satisfaction for both views: female target (Study 1) and male perpetrator (Study 2) perspectives. The results of the first study (n = 138 heterosexual women) demonstrated that perceiving partner objectification (but not reporting general sexual objectification victimization) is indirectly linked to a lower sexual satisfaction because of lower rejection and higher sexual coercion rates. The second study (n = 136 heterosexual men) showed the indirect effect of partner objectification and general sexual objectification perpetration on sexual satisfaction after sexual coercion perpetration. Results of both studies demonstrated the negative consequences that sexual objectification has on sexual satisfaction for both male perpetrators and female targets.

Gender role attitudes, awareness and experiences of non-consensual sex among university students in Shanghai, China

BACKGROUND

Non-consensual sex (NCS) among young people, an important subject with public health and human rights implications, was less studied in China. This study is to investigate the NCS awareness and victimization of university students in Shanghai, China and whether they were associated with adolescent gender-role attitudes.

METHODS

Gender-role attitudes, awareness and victimization of different forms of NCS were examined among 1099 undergraduates (430 males and 669 females) in four universities in Shanghai using computer-assisted self-interview approach.

RESULTS

University students held relatively egalitarian attitude to gender roles. Gender difference existed that girls desired to be more equal in social status and resource sharing while more endorsed the submissiveness for women in sexual interaction than boys. They held low vigilance on the risk of various forms of NCS, with the mean score on perception of NCS among boys (5.67) lower than that among girls (6.37). Boys who adhered to traditional gender norms were less likely to aware the nature of NCS (β = - 0.6107, p = 0.0389). Compared with boys, higher proportion of girls had been the victims of verbal harassment, unwanted touch, fondling, and penetrative sexual intercourse. Multivariable analysis revealed that girls who held more traditional gender-role attitudes were more vulnerable to physical NCS (OR = 1.41, p = 0.0558).

CONCLUSIONS

The weakening but still existing traditional gender norms had contributions in explaining the gender difference on the low vigilance of NCS and higher prevalence of victimization among university students in Shanghai, China. Interventions should be taken to challenge the traditional gender norms in individual and structural level, and promote the society to understand the nature of NCS better as well as enhance negotiation skills of adolescents and young people that prevent them from potentially risky situations or relationships.