An Event-Level Investigation of Factors Associated With Young Women’s Experiences of Coerced Consensual Sex

Abstract

Little is known about instances of coerced consensual sex in which women report both that they consented to have sex and that their partner used coercive tactics (e.g., made threats) to get them to have sex when they did not want to. Yet, these experiences are frequently reported by young sexually active women. We examined the relationship between sexual victimization history and the woman’s level of alcohol intoxication in the likelihood of experiencing coerced consensual sex using event-level data collected over a 1-year period from 548 young adult nonproblem drinking women who engaged in sexual activity with men. Twenty percent (n = 112) reported at least one incident of coerced consensual sex. A generalized estimating equation model revealed main effects of daily estimated blood alcohol content (eBAC) and sexual victimization severity. The more women increased their alcohol consumption above their own average and the more severe their sexual victimization history, the more likely they were to experience coerced consensual sex. Our findings highlight the fact that coercion and consent are not mutually exclusive in some situations and shed light on this important yet understudied coercive sexual experience.

Effectiveness of Sexual Assault Protective Behaviors on the Daily Level: The Roles of Intoxication and Executive Control

“…Our results did, however, support a main effect for intoxication on the odds of experiencing SA in the Proactive PBS model. This is consistent with a large body of prior work demonstrating the role of heavy drinking in SA risk (Abbey et al, 2001; Stappenbeck et al, 2020). Notably, intoxication was not significantly associated with SA in the Reactive PBS model.…”

Condom-Insistence Conflict in Women’s Alcohol-Involved Sexual Encounters With a New Male Partner

“…For purposes of the current analysis, a single consensual FTNP sexual event per participant was selected from the first survey week in which one was reported; regardless of when the FTNP event occurred over the participant’s yearlong participation, the follow-up survey responses were collected within 1 week after the event. These follow-up surveys also contained assessments of a variety of other constructs not central to the current analysis to address different study aims, including ongoing sexual victimization experiences (Bryan et al, 2016), pain and satisfaction associated with sex (Neilson, Norris, Bryan, & Stappenbeck, 2016), ongoing depression and anxiety symptoms (Neilson et al, 2016), and partners’ coercive behaviors to obtain sex (Stappenbeck et al, 2016). Gift cards were provided as compensation.…”

Sexual Violence against Women in Germany: Prevalence and Risk Markers

“…Furthermore, Krahé and colleagues [ 20 ] applied a multilevel approach combining individual-level and country-level predictors of sexual aggression in order to further analyze the varying prevalence rates. However, while research increasingly aims at applying statistically advanced methods to the distribution and risk factors associated with sexual violence victimizations (e.g., [ 16 , 21 ]), the aforementioned study [ 20 ] is one of the few examples including European countries, such as Germany, for example. Beyond that, investigating prevalence and risk markers of sexual violence against women in Germany is especially interesting as to the best of our knowledge (potential) victims’ knowledge about the current legal situation regarding marital rape has not yet been taken into account.…”