Cp91/id91/pr91 Childhood and Adolescent Victimization and Sexual Coercion and Assault by Male and Female University Students

Objective: (1) To estimate the extent to which male and female university students use verbal sexual coercion and physically forced sex on a dating partner. (2) To test a theoretical model which specifies that corporal punishment, minor forms of neglect by parents, and sexually abuse regardless of the perpetrator, increase the probability of sexually coercing and sexually assaulting a partner, and that this relationship is partly mediated by antisocial traits and behavior. Method: A path analysis using multinomial logistic regression was used to test the fit of the model to a convenience sample of 13,877 students in 32 nations. Results: Both male and female students engage in sexual coercion, but the rates are higher for males. For both men and women, each of the three forms of prior victimization studied were associated with an increased probability of antisocial behavior, which in turn was associated with an increased probability of verbally coercing and physically forcing sex. Most of the direct paths from victimization to sexual coercion were also statistically significant. Conclusions: In addition to sexual abuse, relatively mild victimization such as corporal punishment and seemingly innocuous forms of neglect are part of the etiology of sexually coercive behavior. Because those mild forms of victimization are highly prevalent, steps to reduce their prevalence could be an import step in primary prevention of sexual coercion.