Rape and less severe forms of sexual aggression are significant public health problems among college students. Predicting who is likely to attempt sexual aggression is an essential first step toward prevention.
Thompson, Swartout, and Koss (2013, Psychology of Violence) identified trajectories of college men's sexually aggressive behaviors over time. Understanding these trajectories can facilitate early identification of sexually aggressive men and work to thwart sexually aggressive behavior during their college years.
Data were collected from 795 college men over 4 years to investigate the commission of a range of unwanted sexual acts and some of the factors that increase risk.
Thompson et al. found four distinct temporal patterns:
- 71% showed a stable low-to-none pattern throughout their 4 years of college
- 9% maintained persistently high levels of sexually aggressive behaviors
- 12% showed decreasing patterns of sexual aggression
- 8% showed steadily increasing patterns of sexual aggression
Hostile masculinity and peer norms predicted trajectory membership such that higher levels of hostile masculinity and peer norms at the beginning of college but not at the end of college were associated with the decreasing aggression trajectory, higher levels of hostile masculinity and peer norms at the end of college but not at the beginning of college increased the likelihood of membership in the increasing trajectory, and higher levels of hostile masculinity and peer norms at both the beginning and the end of college predicted membership in the consistently high sexual aggression trajectory.
These results can help predict who is likely to initiate, desist, and continue sexual aggression. Research suggests that these risk factors can be changed. The most effective strategies will need to focus on reducing the impact of the risk factors on sexual aggression throughout the college years — for example, through annual self-assessments. The dosage and timing of intervention strategies require additional study.
Citation:
Thompson, M. P., Swartout, K. M., & Koss, M. P. (2013). Trajectories and predictors of sexually aggressive behaviors during emerging adulthood.
Psychology of Violence, 3
(3), 247–259. doi:
10.1037/a0030624
Note: This article is in the Social Psychology & Social Processes topic area. View more articles in the Social Psychology & Social Processes topic area.