College students are at particular risk for sexual assault victimization, yet research tends to focus on women as victims and men as perpetrators. The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences in the prevalence, context, and predictors of sexual assault victimization among college students. Results showed that women were significantly more likely to have been sexually assaulted in a 2-month time period, but the context of victimization varied little by gender. Victimization was predicted by sexual orientation, time spent socializing and partying, and severe dating violence victimization for men and by year in school, time spent on the Internet, drinking and using drugs, and being a stalking and dating violence victim for women. Results are discussed in the context of routine activities theory and implications for prevention and future research.

The utility of distress tolerance (DT) as a transdiagnostic marker of psychopathology has been limited to date by a lack of consensus on how to measure DT. Closer examination of the measures used to capture the DT construct are needed for enhancing our understanding of extant and future DT research. Consistent with prior research, multi-modal assessment in a sample (n = 144) of undergraduate students revealed weak associations between self-report and behavioral measures of DT. Qualitative analyses of reported reasons for quitting the behavioral measures revealed variability in participants’ subjective experiences when performing these tasks. However, those who reported reasons consistent with the DT construct (e.g., to escape discomfort) did not show the hypothesized associations between self-report and behavioral measures. Results provided preliminary support for the importance of clarifying contextual factors (i.e., subjective reasons for quitting) when assessing DT, and suggested that self-report and behavioral measures of DT may indeed be capturing meaningfully distinct constructs for many individuals. Further implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Objective: Emerging evidence suggests that bystander prevention programs are promising interventions for decreasing sexual violence (SV) and dating violence (DV) on college campuses, yet there have been no experimental evaluations to date comparing such programs with other programs. The objective of the current study was to test whether a bystander program was better than a traditional psychoeducation violence prevention program. Method: We present an exploratory experimental evaluation of a bystander prevention program compared with a traditional psychoeducation program. Results: Both programs improved rape myth acceptance and knowledge scores. There was also a trend suggesting the bystander group improved in bystander efficacy over time, with a slight decrease in bystander efficacy for the traditional psychoeducation group. Conclusions: Current findings suggest that the modified bystander program may be an effective prevention program; however, it is unclear whether it is superior to other approaches.

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Problem drinkers may use alcohol to avoid negative mood states and may develop implicit cognitive associations between negative emotional states and reinforcing properties of drinking. Ironically, attempts to control drinking, such as among those high in drinking restraint, may inadvertently increase desire to drink and subsequent alcohol consumption, and this may be exaggerated under times of emotional distress when urges to drink are high. We examined whether individuals who are high on drinking restraint would demonstrate stronger alcohol-related thoughts elicited by stimuli that represent the desire to use alcohol, in response to stronger versus weaker negative mood arousal. Seventy hazardous drinkers completed measurements of drinking restraint, alcohol consumption, and consequences of use. After being randomized to view negative or positive pictures sets, participants completed an Implicit Association Task (IAT) to test differences in the strength of the association between desire to approach or avoid alcohol or water cues, and then a measurement of subjective craving following the IAT. Regression analyses showed that trait restriction, but not temptation, was positively related to IAT scores, after controlling for relevant covariates and explained 7% of the total variance. Trait temptation, but not IAT, predicted subjective craving. Negative affect was unrelated to IAT scores, singly or in conjunction with measures of drinking restraint, contrary to predictions. In sum, implicit alcohol cognitions are related to attempts to restrict drinking, but not temptation to drink, and are less strongly influenced by mood state.

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