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This study used latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify at-risk profiles of college freshman women ( n = 481) using self-reports of alcohol consumption and sociosexuality. Analyses resulted in three profiles labeled low alcohol use-low sociosexuality, high alcohol use-medium sociosexuality, and high alcohol use-high sociosexuality. Baseline victimization predicted latent profile membership. More severely victimized women were more likely to be in the high alcohol-high sociosexuality profile than the high alcohol-medium sociosexuality and low alcohol-low sociosexuality profiles. At follow-up, the high alcohol-high sociosexuality profile had higher mean levels of victimization severity, relative to those in the high alcohol-medium sociosexuality and low alcohol-low sociosexuality profiles.

Two hundred forty-seven ( N = 247) undergraduate women at a medium-sized, Southwestern university provided written descriptions of a hypothetical sexual assault (SA). Women with a prior history of SA also described their actual SA experiences; women without a SA history provided a written description of a prior bad date or hookup. The contextual features of SA scripts were compared to those of actual SA experiences. Several characteristics of a stereotypical or “blitz rape” (e.g., physical force by a stranger) were more likely to be included in SA scripts relative to women’s actual SA experiences. Victimized women were also more likely to include verbal coercion, a hangout/hookup context, and previous consensual kissing in their SA experiences, in comparison to their SA scripts. The contextual features of SA experiences were also compared to the contextual features of bad dates or bad hookups. SA experiences, relative to bad dates, were more likely to include alcohol use, physical and verbal coercion by the perpetrator, and passive resistance. SA experiences, relative to bad hookups, were more likely to include physical and verbal coercion by the perpetrator, and knowing the man for less than 1 week. Victimized participants SA experiences were also found to be less likely to include previous consensual kissing and consensual intercourse in comparison to bad hookup experiences of nonvictimized women. Overall, there was considerable overlap between the contextual features present across all experiences. The lack of differentiation among these events may explain why women experience difficulty acknowledging whether they have experienced SA.

Rates of sexual victimization have remained steady over several decades, and preventative interventions to reduce men’s sexually aggressive behavior have been largely ineffective. As such, research has endeavored to find novel approaches to identify women at increased risk for sexual victimization. Sexual assault scripts, or “cognitive models” that women adhere to that guide their beliefs about sexual assault are posited to influence their victimization risk. Prior studies on sexual assault scripts primarily have been qualitative in nature; however, recent work yielded a 27-item measure of putative risk for sexual victimization called the Sexual Assault Script Scale (SASS). The SASS has four subscales called Stereotypical Assault Scripts, Acquaintance Assault Scripts, Assault Resistance Scripts, and Date/Friend Assault Scripts, which were found in prior work to be internally consistent and associated with putative risk factors for sexual victimization. The focus of the current study was to test the measurement invariance of the SASS among Hispanic and non-Hispanic White college women who were recruited in the prior study. Four hundred sixty-nine ( N = 469) Hispanic and 415 non-Hispanic White US undergraduate heterosexual or bisexual women from a Southwestern university in the United States completed the SASS. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) replicated the prior four-factor model with an acceptable fit to the data, and tests of measurement invariance revealed the SASS to be invariant across Hispanic and non-Hispanic White college women, suggesting that the SASS is measuring a similar construct in these groups.

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