Discrepant Responding across Measures of College Students’ Sexual Victimization Experiences: Conceptual Replication and Extension

Anderson, RaeAnn E.; Delahanty, Douglas L.

doi:10.1080/00224499.2019.1669135

Cited by 23 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…One version presented the coercive tactics in a hierarchical order from least to most severe, the other presented the tactics in a random order. Their results found no significant differences in the overall prevalence rates identified by the different formats, but rates were substantially higher than the rates identified in an earlier study using the standard version of the SES by Koss et al (2007) in which the items lead with the sexual acts rather than the coercive tactics (Anderson & Delahanty, 2020).…”

Section: Explanations Of Order Effects In Surveysmentioning

confidence: 61%

Order Effects of Presenting Coercive Tactics on Young Adults’ Reports of Sexual Victimization

Tomaszewska

Schuster

Marchewka

et al. 2021

J Interpers Violence

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Measures designed to collect prevalence reports of sexual victimization need to be robust against variations of question context to yield valid findings. Previous research has examined variations in the order in which questions about unwanted sexual acts and questions about coercive tactics are presented. The current study examined potential effects of the order in which coercive tactics are presented on self-reported prevalence rates of sexual victimization. The following two versions of the Sexual Aggression and Victimization Scale (SAV-S), a validated measure for studying sexual aggression victimization and perpetration in college students, were used: (a) the standard version in which the physical-force items were presented first and the items referring to the use of verbal pressure were presented last, and (b) a reversed order in which the verbal-pressure items were presented first and the physical-force items were presented last. Items referring to the exploitation of the victim’s inability to resist were placed in the middle in both versions. In a sample of 856 participants from Germany (475 female, 381 male, mean age of 24 years), most of whom were university students, 80.4% of women and 55.3% of men reported at least one experience of sexual victimization since the age of 14. No order effects on overall victimization rates were found. For both genders, the victimization rate through verbal pressure was higher when this tactic was presented first. Victimization rates through the threat or use of force were higher in the force-first than in the force-last condition for women, but could not be tested for men due to small cell sizes. No order effects were found for both men and women on reports of victimization through exploiting the inability to resist. The implications of the results for the reliable measurement of sexual aggression are discussed.

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Section: Explanations Of Order Effects In Surveysmentioning

confidence: 61%

Order Effects of Presenting Coercive Tactics on Young Adults’ Reports of Sexual Victimization

Tomaszewska

Schuster

Marchewka

et al. 2021

J Interpers Violence

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Acknowledging this challenge, a growing body of research has examined the impact of methodological decisions on the prevalence rates derived from different measures of sexual aggression. Studies have examined the convergence of prevalence rates assessed by different instruments (Anderson & Delahanty, 2020;Testa et al, 2015) and shown that variations in item format and number of items produce different prevalence figures (Cook et al, 2011;Kolivas & Gross, 2007;Koss, 1993;Krahé et al, 2014). Other studies have found that using behaviorally specific questions produce significantly higher prevalence rates compared with narrow direct questions regarding attempted or completed rape (e.g., "Have you been raped?")…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Question Format Matter in Assessing the Prevalence of Sexual Aggression? A Methodological Study

Schuster

Tomaszewska

Marchewka

et al. 2020

The Journal of Sex Research

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As research on sexual aggression has been growing, methodological issues in assessing prevalence rates have received increased attention. Building on work by Abbey and colleagues about effects of question format, participants in this study (1,253; 621 female; 632 male) were randomly assigned to one of two versions of the Sexual Aggression and Victimization Scale (SAV-S). In Version 1, the coercive tactic (use/ threat of physical force, exploitation of the inability to resist, verbal pressure) was presented first, and sexual acts (sexual touch, attempted and completed sexual intercourse, other sexual acts) were presented as subsequent questions. In Version 2, sexual acts were presented first, and coercive tactics as subsequent questions. No version effects emerged for overall perpetration rates reported by men and women. The overall victimization rate across all items was significantly higher in the tactic-first than in the sexual-act-first conditions for women, but not for men. Classifying participants by their most severe experience of sexual victimization showed that fewer women were in the nonvictim category and more men were in the nonconsensual sexual contact category when the coercive tactic was presented first. Sexual experience background did not moderate the findings. The implications for the measurement of self-reported sexual aggression victimization and perpetration are discussed.

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“…Made to penetrate victimization may be particularly relevant to understanding bisexual men’s experiences, as some data suggests this behavior is perpetrated almost exclusively by heterosexual women ( Anderson et al, 2020 ; Weare, 2018 ). Further, research suggests that currently available questionnaires, such as the iterations of the Sexual Experiences Survey, may be inherently gendered and contain some degree of heterosexist bias because the development of these questionnaires largely excluded SGM populations ( Anderson & Delahanty, 2020 ; Anderson et al, 2021 ). Indeed, research from the IPV literature suggests there may be tactics of violence specific to the experiences of SGM people, such as threatening to “out” someone (i.e., reveal their sexual identity without their consent; Balsam & Szymanski, 2005 ; Dyar et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Measurement and Methodology Issues In Sexual Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

The prevalence of sexual violence perpetration in sexual minority men: A secondary analysis of systematic review data

et al. 2022

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Prior literature illustrates that sexual minority people (e.g., bisexual, gay, queer) are at increased vulnerability for sexual violence victimization compared to heterosexual peers, including while in college. However, the study of sexual violence perpetration in sexual minority populations, much less specifically sexual minority college men, has been neglected. This article reviews the literature and presents a secondary data analysis of a systematic review on college men’s sexual perpetration rates and associated methodology. We also conducted analyses to summarize available literature regarding publishing dates, authors, and data inclusivity. Methods: We downloaded the dataset and associated materials from Mendeley.com’s data archive. Results: To our surprise, we could not analyze sexual perpetration prevalence rates in sexual minority men using the systematic review data due to absence of reported data across all 77 independent samples including over 5,500 male participants. We found no significant relationship between inclusion of sexual minority men and the use of measurement strategies specialized to assess sexual minority needs. We did find a positive relationship between recency of publication and the inclusion of sexual minority men, r(76) = .24, p = .03, and that most authors/co-authors were women (72%). Conclusions: Preventing perpetration is central to ending sexual violence; therefore, future research should include sexual minority people and use appropriate methodology in the investigation of sexual perpetration characteristics and patterns.

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Discrepant Responding across Measures of College Students’ Sexual Victimization Experiences: Conceptual Replication and Extension

Cited by 23 publications

References 42 publications

Order Effects of Presenting Coercive Tactics on Young Adults’ Reports of Sexual Victimization

Order Effects of Presenting Coercive Tactics on Young Adults’ Reports of Sexual Victimization

Does Question Format Matter in Assessing the Prevalence of Sexual Aggression? A Methodological Study

The prevalence of sexual violence perpetration in sexual minority men: A secondary analysis of systematic review data

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