Alcohol-involved sexual aggression: Emotion regulation as a mechanism of behavior change.

Abstract

Objective: Sexual aggression remains a significant public health problem, with the majority of sexual assaults involving alcohol. Founded upon an experimental medicine approach to behavior change, the current study used a proximal change experiment to target and test emotion regulation (ER) as a mechanism underlying alcohol-involved sexual aggression. Method: Heavy episodic drinking men aged 21–30 with a sexual assault perpetration history (N = 209) were randomly assigned to a brief, online, ER-focused cognitive restructuring or mindfulness intervention or to control. Intervention effects were evaluated during sober and intoxicated states through laboratory-based alcohol administration (target BrAC = .08%). Intoxicated and sober participants completed a proximal change protocol that included implementing ER skills during a sexual aggression analogue that assessed relevant emotions and intentions. Results: Path analysis demonstrated that relative to control, the cognitive restructuring intervention improved emotional modulation and emotional clarity, resulting in lower sexual arousal and anger, respectively, followed by decreased sexual coercion intentions. The mindfulness intervention yielded mixed results, predicting decreased sexual aggression intentions compared to control but also predicting stronger coercive tactic intentions in intoxicated men with more severe sexual aggression histories. Both interventions improved emotional acceptance relative to control, but only for sober men. Conclusions: Overall, the current study demonstrated that ER-focused interventions improved proximal ER skills associated with reduced sexual aggression intentions, signifying ER as an important mechanism for changing sexually aggressive behavior. Because intervention efficacy varied by intoxication state, further research is needed to assess the effectiveness of ER interventions targeting real-world alcohol-involved sexual aggression.

A behavioral science framework for understanding college campus sexual assault

“…We seek Here, we also wish to briefly highlight to researchers the personal and situational factors that alcohol likely exacerbates. It is likely that alcohol interacts in important and interesting ways with the psychological processes we describe (e.g., for effects of alcohol on perceptions of sexual interest, see Abby & Ross, 1992;Abbey, Zawacki, & McAuslan, 2000; Jacques-Tiurra, Abbey, Parkhill, & Zawacki, 2007;George, Gournic, & McAfee, 1988; emotion regulation, see Davis, et al, 2020;self-justification, Koss & Cleveland, 1997;George & Marlett, 1986; and labeling of sexual victimization, Orchowski, Untied, & Gidycz, 2013). We especially welcome future work that examines these interactions.…”

Acute alcohol intoxication, state anger, and sexual assault perpetration: The role of state emotion regulation.

“…The empirical literature has found an association of anger and sexual assault perpetration in both cross-sectional and experimental methodologies (Davis, 2010; LeBreton et al, 2013; Thomas & Gorzalka, 2012). Perpetrators of sexual assault report higher trait anger than nonperpetrators (LeBreton et al, 2013), and in-the-moment anger (e.g., state anger) is associated with intentions to perpetrate sexual assault (Davis et al, 2020; Thomas & Gorzalka, 2012). Evidence suggests alcohol may facilitate sexual assault perpetration by exacerbating trait anger (Shorey et al, 2017) or directly increasing negative emotions, such as anger (Davis, 2010).…”

“…One recent study examining state ER found men with histories of sexual assault perpetration reported difficulties modulating emotions during a hypothetical sexual assault scenario (Davis et al, 2020). Moreover, in the moment, access to strategies to modulate emotions (one facet of state ER) was associated with decreased intentions to perpetrate sexual assault (Davis et al, 2020). Further research is needed to understand the association between state ER and sexual assault perpetration, particularly in the context of established predictors of sexual aggression, such as acute intoxication and anger.…”

Recruitment and retention of underrepresented and vulnerable populations to research

“…Despite the rise in web‐based recruitment, hard copy flyers placed in relevant community settings, and tailored to the population of interest still have utility. For example, in a study recruiting young adults who consume alcohol (Davis et al., 2020), flyers placed in local bars were effective. Similarly, placing flyers in wig shops set up especially for cancer patients has helped us reach breast cancer survivors (Larkey et al., 2015).…”