Reducing Sexual Victimization among Adolescent Girls: Pilot Trial Of My Voice, My Choice

Despite extensive efforts to develop and implement programs to prevent sexual violence, few programs have empirically-demonstrated efficacy. The primary exceptions are programs that emphasize risk-reduction skills; yet even these programs are not consistently effective. This study seeks to add to the literature by evaluating the effects of My Voice, My Choice (MVMC), a 90-minute assertive resistance training program that emphasizes skill practice in an immersive virtual environment (IVE). 

We hypothesized that MVMC would reduce male-to-female sexual victimization among adolescent girls over a 3-month follow-up period. We also examined whether these results would generalize to other forms of male-to-female relationship violence and to girls' psychological distress. Eighty-three female students from an urban public high school were randomized to MVMC (n=47) or to a wait-list control condition (n=36); 78 provided data over the 3-month follow-up period. 

Participants assigned to MVMC were less likely than control participants to report sexual victimization during the follow-up period. Our results also suggest that MVMC reduced risk for psychological victimization and for psychological distress among participants with greater prior victimization at baseline. 

The promising results of this pilot trial suggest that MVMC may help girls evade male-to-female relationship violence.

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By:  Rowe LS1, Jouriles EN2, McDonald R2.

• 1Southern Methodist University. Electronic address: lsimpson@smu.edu.
• 2Southern Methodist University.

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Physical & Sexual Abuse in Childhood or Adolescence and Gestational Diabetes

INTRODUCTION:

Early life abuse has been linked to later Type 2 diabetes, but its association with gestational diabetes has not been examined. The aim of this study was to examine the association between childhood and adolescent abuse victimization and risk of gestational diabetes in the Nurses' Health Study II.

METHODS:

Participants were asked about experiences of physical and sexual abuse in childhood or adolescence in 2001 and about history of pregnancy complications in 2009. Mothers of singleton live births who provided information on their abuse history comprised the study sample. Modified Poisson regression was used to estimate risk ratios and 95% CIs for gestational diabetes as a function of physical and sexual abuse victimization. Analyses were conducted in 2014-2015.

RESULTS:

Of 45,550 women in the analysis, 8% reported severe physical abuse and 11% reported forced sexual activity in childhood or adolescence. Approximately 3% (n=3,181) of pregnancies were complicated by gestational diabetes. In adjusted models, severe physical abuse was associated with a 42% greater gestational diabetes risk (risk ratio=1.42, 95% CI=1.21, 1.66) relative to no physical abuse. Forced sexual activity was associated with a 30% greater risk (95% CI=1.14, 1.49). Women with histories of both physical and sexual abuse were at higher risk than women exposed to a single type of abuse. These associations were not explained by overweight status in early adulthood or prior to pregnancy.

CONCLUSIONS:

Childhood and adolescent victimization is associated with increased risk of gestational diabetes in adult women.

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By:  Mason SM1, Tobias DK2, Clark CJ3, Zhang C4, Hu FB5, Rich-Edwards JW6.

• 1Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Electronic address: smmason@umn.edu.
• 2Division of Preventive Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts.
• 3Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Department of Medicine, Medical School, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• 4Epidemiology Branch, Division of Intramural Population Health Research, National Institute of Child Health and Development, Bethesda, Maryland.
• 5Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts.
• 6Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Connors Center for Women's Health and Gender Biology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. 

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Blackout Drinking Predicts Sexual Revictimization in a College Sample of Binge-Drinking Women

Sexual victimization is prevalent on U.S. college campuses. Some women experience multiple sexual victimizations with heightened risk among those with prior victimization histories. One risk factor for sexual revictimization is alcohol use. 

Most research has focused on associations between alcohol consumption and revictimization. The current study's objective was to understand potential mechanisms by which drinking confers risk for revictimization. We hypothesized that specific drinking consequences would predict risk for revictimization above and beyond the quantity of alcohol consumed. 

There were 162 binge-drinking female students (mean age = 20.21 years, 71.3% White, 36.9% juniors) from the University of Washington who were assessed for baseline victimization (categorized as childhood vs. adolescent victimization), quantity of alcohol consumed, and drinking consequences experienced, then assessed 30 days later for revictimization. 

There were 40 (24.6%) women who were revictimized in the following 30 days. Results showed that blackout drinking at baseline predicted incapacitated sexual revictimization among women previously victimized as adolescents, after accounting for quantity of alcohol consumed. Other drinking consequences were not strongly predictive of revictimization. 

Adolescent sexual victimization was an important predictor of sexual revictimization in college women; blackout drinking may confer unique risk for revictimization.

Below:  Probability of incapacitated sexual revictimization at high and low levels of blackout drinking for a sample of undergraduate binge-drinking women with and without previous adolescent sexual victimization only at baseline.

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/UwosbV

By: Valenstein-Mah H1, Larimer M2, Zoellner L1, Kaysen D2.

• 1Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.
• 2Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.  

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