This study investigated lifetime prevalence of traumatic events and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among 937 college students. Participants rated their lifetime experiences of traumatic events and, in response to their "most stressful" event, completed measures of objective stressor dimensions, PTSD, and peritraumatic reactions. Approximately 67% of respondents reported at least one traumatic event. An estimated 4% of the full sample (12% of traumatized individuals) met PTSD criteria within the past week. After controlling for vulnerability factors and objective characteristics, peritraumatic reactions remained strongly predictive of PTSD symptoms. Results are discussed with respect to immediate reactions to traumatic events as potential precursors of PTSD symptomatology.

This study used experimental methodology to investigate the differential impact of various levels of sexual victimization on women's perceptions of risk and evaluative judgments of sexual assault within a dating interaction. Single- and multiple-incident victims were compared with nonvictims. Results supported the hypothesis that revictimized women would exhibit longer latencies than either single-incident victims or nonvictims in signaling that an audiotaped date rape should be halted. Revictimized women with greater posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, arousal symptoms in particular, exhibited latencies similar to those of nonvictims, whereas revictimized women with lower levels of PTSD symptoms had significantly longer latencies. Dissociative symptoms were not related to latency. These findings suggest that PTSD-related arousal symptoms may serve a buffering effect, increasing sensitivity to threat cues that portend a sexually coercive interaction.

The present study investigated alcohol expectancies, alcohol consumption, sexual assertiveness, and the number of consensual sexual partners as potential risk factors for sexual assault among three groups of college women: nonvictimized, moderately victimized, and severely victimized. Women with severe victimization histories (attempted or completed rape), compared with nonvictims, reported more consensual sexual partners, less perceived assertiveness in their ability to refuse unwanted sexual advances, greater weekly alcohol consumption, and more positive outcome expectancies for alcohol including tension reduction, sexual enhancement, and global positive change. In addition, for both victimized and nonvictimized women, consumption of alcohol and expectancies of social enhancement following alcohol use independently accounted for a significant portion of the variance of sexual activity following alcohol consumption. Findings are discussed with respect to research aimed at reducing sexual assault among women who are at highest risk for sexual violence.

This study examined the relationship between homophobia (defined as self-reported negative affect, avoidance, and aggression toward homosexuals) and homosexual aggression. Self-identified heterosexual college men were assigned to homophobic (n = 26) and nonhomophobic (n = 26) groups on the basis of their scores on the Homophobia Scale (HS; L. W. Wright, H. E. Adams, & L A. Bernat, 1999). Physical aggression was examined by having participants administer shocks to a fictitious opponent during a competitive reaction time (RT) task under the impression that the study was examining the relationship between sexually explicit material and RT. Participants were exposed to a male homosexual erotic videotape, their affective reactions were assessed, and they then competed in the RT task against either a heterosexual or a homosexual opponent. The homophobic group reported significantly more negative affect, anxiety, and anger-hostility after watching the homosexual erotic videotape than did the nonhomophobic group. Additionally, the homophobic group was significantly more aggressive toward the homosexual opponent, but the groups did not differ in aggression toward the heterosexual opponent.

Few studies have examined sexually coercive behavior in nonoffending yound adults other than college students. The present investigation examined self-report measures of peer delinquency, sexual promiscuity, hostility toward women, anger, and alcohol consumption on dates as predictors of sexual coercion and attraction to sexual aggression in a cross section of 65 nonoffending young men from a rural community. Delinquency was the strongest predictor of both coercive sexual behavior and attraction to sexual aggression. Attraction to sexual aggression also was significantly predicted by hostility toward women. Individuals with no histories of committing sexually coercive acts but who were highly attracted to sexual aggression shared profiles similar to sexually coercive men on hostility toward women, delinquency, and alcohol consumption on dates. Sexually noncoercive men low on attraction scored significantly lower than sexually coercive men on hostility toward women and alcohol consumption on dates and reported significantly less delinquent behavior than both other groups.