This is the first study of unwanted sexual experiences in the collegiate "hooking-up" culture. In a representative sample of 178 students at a small liberal arts university. Twenty-three percent of women and 7% of men surveyed reported one or more experiences of unwanted sexual intercourse. Seventy-eight percent of unwanted vaginal, anal, and oral incidents took place while--"hooking up,"--whereas 78% of unwanted fondling incidents occurred at parties or bars. The most frequently endorsed reason for unwanted sexual intercourse was impaired judgment due to alcohol. The most frequently endorsed reason for unwanted fondling was that it happened before the perpetrator could be stopped. Of those affected by unwanted sexual intercourse or unwanted fondling, 46.7% and 19.2% reported unwanted memories, 50% and 32.7% reported avoidance and numbing responses, and 30% and 26.9% reported hyperarousal responses, respectively. A preliminary model of unwanted sex and collegiate social dynamics is proposed to provide a heuristic for further research.

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The results of numerous experimental studies have provided ample evidence for William James' theory that emotional conduct is a sufficient condition for the occurrence of emotional feelings. Two further questions are addressed in the study reported in this paper. First, critics have speculated that the effects of peripheral feedback from expressive bodily movement may lead to generalized, diffuse pleasant or unpleasant experiences, rather than the specific emotional feelings consistent with James' position. Second, if the Jamesian account is correct, then the simultaneous combination of multiple, consistent sources of expressive bodily feedback should result in greater magnitudes of emotional response than those caused by separate, individual sources. The results of the present study replicate those of the only other study (Duclos et al., 1989) which has demonstrated specific effects of expressive behaviors on corresponding emotional feelings. It was also possible to demonstrate, via correlational analyses, that those people who are responsive to their expressions tend to be responsive to their postures as well, since subjects in this study received manipulations of their facial expressions and their bodily postures. The results of this study also indicate that matching combinations of facial expressions and bodily postures result in more powerful feelings of the corresponding emotional feelings than do either expressions or postures alone. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study provides support for a red zone and highlights the need for investigating local norms for UWS.

Litz et al. (1997), theorizing that emotional numbing (EN) is the result of emotional depletion caused by chronic hyperarousal, demonstrated that a cluster of hyperarousal symptoms was a robust predictor of EN symptoms. In the present study, these findings were replicated and extended in two multiple regression analyses of data from a large, multisite investigation (T. M. Keane et al., 1998) of psychophysiological responding by male combat veterans. The arousal (D) cluster of symptoms was again the most robust predictor of EN symptoms, whereas physiological indices of arousal and reactivity accounted for negligible amounts of variance in both regression equations. These findings underscore the possible link between disturbances related to arousal and the capacity of traumatized individuals to express and experience pleasant feelings.

If found to generalize to other campus populations, the role of hooking up in sexual assault should be added to systems-based models of sexual assault (e.g.,Heise, 1998) and to educational prevention programs. (PsycINFO Database Record

The "red zone" usually refers to the first few weeks of the first semester at college, when female students are believed to be at greatest risk for experiencing unwanted sex. We tested this notion using data from a survey study of 207 first-and second-year students (121 women, 84 men) at a small, liberal arts university. Results demonstrated only one significant elevation in incidence rates of first- and second-year women's unwanted sexual experiences (sexual touching, attempted and completed anal, oral, and vaginal sex), between the end of the first month and fall break (mid-October) during the second year at school. Previous research and local information about the relevant behaviors of sorority and fraternity members is discussed in light of these findings to provide heuristic material for further empirical testing. Because risk may involve both temporal and situational factors, systematic collection and dissemination of local data are recommended.

The survey performed sufficiently well in pilot testing to recommend its use with U.S. college populations. (PsycINFO Database Record