Adolescents’ Experiences of Sexual Assault by Peers: Prevalence and Nature of Victimization Occurring Within and Outside of School

Abstract

This study examined adolescent peer-on-peer sexual assault victimization occurring within and outside school. The sample consisted of 1,086 7th through 12th grade students, with a mean age of 15. Most of the respondents were White (54%) or Black (45%), and approximately half of respondents were female (54%). A modified version of the Sexual Experiences Survey was used to assess opposite sex sexual victimization in 7th through 12th grade students. Rates of peer sexual assault were high, ranging from 26% of high school boys to 51% of high school girls. School was the most common location of peer sexual victimization. Characteristics of assault varied by location, including type of victimization, victims' grade level, relationship to the perpetrator, type of coercion, and how upsetting the assault was. Distinctions between sexual assault occurring in and out of school are conceptualized with literature on developmental changes in heterosexual relationships and aggression.

New possibilities in the prevention of eating disorders: The introduction of positive body image measures

“…Safety maintains the body as a site of positive connection, agency, subjective attunement, and pleasure, while violations lead to dissociation, disrupted connection with the body, blocked agency, disrupted attunement, and a host of negative feelings (van der Kolk, 1996). Sexual harassment and other violations are very common during adolescence (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000;Young, Grey, & Boyd, 2009), and while violations are a general risk factor to multiple expressions of disrupted embodiment and not a specific risk factor to disordered eating, they are just as relevant to prevention work (Piran, 2010). The provision of safety is challenging to achieve as it is tied to widely accepted ideologies and social structures of power and privilege (Senn, Gee, & Thake, 2011).…”

Doing More Good than Harm? The Effects of Participation in Sex Research on Young People in the Netherlands

“…Persisting high rates of sexually transmitted infection (STI) (Gavin et al, 2009), sexual victimization and perpetration (Barter, McCarry, Berredge, & Evans, 2009;Gavin et al, 2009;Young, Grey, & Boyd, 2009), and adolescent pregnancies (Gavin et al, 2009;Organisation of Economic Co-Operation and Development, 2008;Singh & Darroch, 2000) among young people warrant and require further research on their sexual health. It seems therefore important to examine empirically the effects of participation in sex research on young people.…”

Adolescent school-based sexual victimization: Exploring the role of opportunity in a gender-specific multilevel analysis

“…For instance, in their examination of sexual victimization by peers both within and outside of the school setting, Young, Grey, and Boyd (2009) found, among more than 1,000 students in grades 7 through 12, that 40 percent of middle school and 53 percent of high school female students reported peer-on-peer sexual assault and even higher percentages reported sexual harassment victimization. For middle school students, more than half of their peer-on-peer sexual assaults occurred in or on school grounds, while nearly 40 percent of high school students reported the school as the location of their sexual assault.…”