The first year of college is an important transitional
period for young adults; it is also a period associated with elevated risk of
incapacitated rape (IR) for female students. The goal of this study was to
identify prospective risk factors associated with experiencing attempted or
completed IR during the first year of college.
Using a prospective cohort design, we recruited 483 incoming
first-year female students. Participants completed a baseline survey and three
follow-up surveys over the next year. At baseline, we assessed precollege
alcohol use, marijuana use, sexual behavior, and, for the subset of sexually
experienced participants, sex-related alcohol expectancies. At the baseline and
all follow-ups, we assessed sexual victimization.
Approximately 1 in 6 women (18%) reported IR before entering
college, and 15% reported IR during their first year of college. In bivariate
analyses, precollege IR history, precollege heavy episodic drinking, number of
precollege sexual partners, and sex-related alcohol expectancies (enhancement
and disinhibition) predicted first-year IR. In multivariate analyses with the
entire sample, only precollege IR remained a
significant predictor. However, among the subset of sexually experienced
participants, both enhancement expectancies and precollege IR predicted IR
during the study year.
IR during the first year of college is independently
associated with a history of IR and with expectancies about alcohol's
enhancement of sexual experience. Alcohol expectancies are a modifiable risk
factor that may be a promising target for prevention efforts.
Full PDF article at: http://goo.gl/FGCnID
By:
- 1Brown University School of Public Health, Providence, Rhode Island.
- 2Syracuse Veterans Affairs Center for Integrated Healthcare, Syracuse, New York.
- 3The Miriam Hospital & Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.
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