While gendered sexual scripts are hegemonic at the cultural level, research suggests they may be less so at dyadic and individual levels. Understanding “disjunctures” between sexual scripts at different levels holds promise for illuminating mechanisms through which sexual scripts can change. Through interviews with 44 heterosexually active men and women aged 18-25, we delineated ways young people grappled with culture-level scripts for sexuality and relationships. Findings suggest that although most participants’ culture-level gender scripts for behavior in sexual relationships were congruent with descriptions of traditional masculine and feminine sexuality, there was heterogeneity in how or whether these scripts were incorporated into individual relationships. Specifically, we found three styles of working with sexual scripts: Conforming, in which personal gender scripts for sexual behavior overlapped with traditional scripts; exception-finding, in which interviewees accepted culture-level gender scripts as a reality, but created exceptions to gender rules for themselves; and transforming, in which participants either attempted to remake culture-level gender scripts, or interpreted their own non-traditional styles as equally normative. Changing sexual scripts can potentially contribute to decreased gender inequity in the sexual realm and to increased opportunities for sexual satisfaction, safety, and wellbeing, particularly for women, but for men as well.

This study used an experimental paradigm to investigate the role of secondary cognitive appraisals in women's sexual assault resistance and whether these appraisals mediated influences of alcohol and prior victimization. After consuming a beverage (control, placebo, moderate, or high dose), 351 women projected themselves into a simulated interaction with a sexually aggressive man. Four types of secondary appraisals (shock at the man's behavior, concern about his feelings, uncertainty in the situation, conflict about what to do) and three resistance strategies (assertive, polite, passive) were examined. Path modeling revealed that, as expected, intoxication and prior sexual victimization influenced secondary appraisals, which in turn influenced intended resistance. Prior adult sexual assault (ASA) and childhood sexual abuse (CSA) also had direct effects: ASA negatively predicted assertive resistance and CSA positively predicted passivity. Findings suggest that secondary appraisals are key targets for intervention to facilitate effective resistance, thereby reducing the risk of adult sexual victimization.

Data from an online community sample of young men were analyzed to test predictors of sexual assault perpetration. We used structural equation modeling to test the relative contributions of specific sub-types of childhood adversity to subsequent sexual aggression. Mediators included hostile masculinity, impersonal sexual behavior and attitudes, and substance use variables. Findings suggested that childhood sexual abuse had direct and mediated effects on sexual assault perpetration, but hostile masculinity was the only proximal factor significantly related to aggression. Childhood polytrauma was also associated with increased perpetration risk, suggesting that prevention efforts may be aided by increased attention to childhood maltreatment.

This study used latent class analysis to empirically identify subgroups of men based on their exposure to childhood maltreatment (i.e., emotional neglect and abuse, physical neglect and abuse, and sexual abuse). It then examined subgroups' differential perpetration of adult intimate partner violence (IPV; both psychological and physical), violence against peers, and sexual assault. Finally, we compared sociodemographic variables and psychosocial functioning across profiles to characterize the adult experiences of men in different maltreatment groups. The community sample consisted of 626 heterosexually active 21- to 30-year-old men. We identified four subgroups: Low Maltreatment (80% of the sample), Emotional and Physical Maltreatment (12%), Emotional and Sexual Maltreatment (4%), and Poly-Victimized (4%). The Low Maltreatment group had significantly lower IPV perpetration rates than the Emotional and Physical Maltreatment group, but groups did not significantly differ on peer violence or sexual assault perpetration rates. Overall, Poly-Victimized men were significantly worse off than the Low Maltreatment group regarding income, education level, and incarceration history. Their rates of recent anxiety and depression symptoms were also higher than those of Low Maltreatment men. Findings support the use of person-oriented techniques for deriving patterns of childhood maltreatment and how these patterns relate to psychological, behavioral, and social factors in adulthood.