Physical Dating Violence, Sexual Violence & Unwanted Pursuit Victimization: A Comparison of Incidence Rates among Sexual-Minority & Heterosexual College Students

The purpose of this study was to estimate the 6-month incidence rates of sexual assault, physical dating violence (DV), and unwanted pursuit (e.g., stalking) victimization among sexual-minority (i.e., individuals with any same-sex sexual experiences) college students with comparison data from non-sexual-minority (i.e., individuals with only heterosexual sexual experiences) college students. 

Participants (N = 6,030) were primarily Caucasian (92.7%) and non-sexual-minority (82.3%). Compared with non-sexual-minority students (N-SMS; n = 4,961), sexual-minority students (SMS; n = 1,069) reported significantly higher 6-month incidence rates of physical DV (SMS: 30.3%; N-SMS: 18.5%), sexual assault (SMS: 24.3%; N-SMS: 11.0%), and unwanted pursuit (SMS: 53.1%; N-SMS: 36.0%) victimization. We also explored the moderating role of gender and found that female SMS reported significantly higher rates of physical DV than female N-SMS, whereas male SMS and male N-SMS reported similar rates of physical DV. Gender did not moderate the relationship between sexual-minority status and victimization experiences for either unwanted pursuit or sexual victimization. 

These findings underscore the alarmingly high rates of interpersonal victimization among sexual-minority students and the critical need for research to better understand the explanatory factors that place SMS at increased risk for interpersonal victimization.

Purchase full article at:   http://goo.gl/9g6QIx

By:   Edwards KM1, Sylaska KM2, Barry JE3, Moynihan MM2, Banyard VL2, Cohn ES2, Walsh WA2, Ward SK2.

• 1University of New Hampshire, Durham, USA Katie.Edwards@unh.edu. (http://cola.unh.edu/womens-studies)
• 2University of New Hampshire, Durham, USA.
• 3University of Chicago, IL, USA.

More at:  https://twitter.com/hiv insight

And: http://twitter.com/Prison Health