Ethnic differences in female sexual victimization

ETHNIC DIFFERENCES IN FEMALE SEXUAL VICTIMIZATION

Linda Kalof Department of Sociology and Anthropology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030 (lkalof@ gmu.edu)

This study examined the link between ethnicity, early sexual victimization experiences and college sexual assault in a sample of 383 undergraduate women. One third of the sample (32.9%) had experienced some form of sexual assault during college (22% of whom reported that they had been raped), and 52 percent had experienced unwanted sexual activity before the age of 18 (17.5% of whom reported that a family member or trusted family friend asked for or forced sexual activities). There were substantial differences among the Black, White, Hispanic and Asian women on two of four measures of college sexual assault. Black women had the highest and Asian women the lowest incidence of forced intercourse through verbal threats or pressure. Hispanic women had the highest and Black women the lowest incidence of attempted rape. Black and White women were almost three times as likely as Hispanic women to have had experiences that meet the legal definition of rape, but do not consider themselves rape victims. There were significant differences in college victimization experiences as a result of experiencing incest before age 18, experiencing extrafamilial sexual abuse before age 18, and the use of alcohol. Ethnicity interacted with alcohol use and early experiences with extrafamilial sexual abuse. However, the effect of incest on college victimization was similar for the women in the study, regardless of ethnicity.

Although the search for correlates of sexual victimization con- tinues unabated, some scholars have concluded that the focus on personality or attitudinal factors that make women particularly vulnerable to sexual assault is futile (Koss & Dinero, 1989). A better understanding of the problem of sexual assault may come from studying vulnerability factors that lie outside the personality or attitudes of the victims themselves. Accordingly, researchers have be-

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gun to examine other links with sexual assault, particularly situational risk factors such as alcohol use (e.g., Abbey et al., 1996), Greek membership (e.g., Kalof, 1993; Sanday, 1990), the sociocultural context, such as ethnicity (e.g., Wyatt, 1992), or prior experiences with victimization (e.g., Himelein, 1995). [It is also important to note that men are also vulnerable to sexual coercion, particularly unwanted sexual activity in dating relationships (Muehlenhard & Cook, 1988; Struckman-Johnson, 1988) and sexual harassment (Shepela & Levesque, 1998; Berdahl, Magley & Waldo, 1996), despite the cultural myth that outside of prison environments, men are invulnerable to sexual assault and if sexually coerced they are not bothered by the experience (Struckman- Johnson & Struckman-Johnson, 1992). Unfortunately, I am not able to address men's experiences with sexual victimization using the sexual experiences questionnaire because of incomplete data pro- vided by the male respondents.] This study elaborates on the links between the situational risk factors, the sociocultural context, and sexual coercion by exploring differences in sexual victimization experiences among college women based on ethnicity, alcohol use, and prior experiences with sexual coercion.

Ethnicity and Adult Sexual Victimization

In a national sample of college women, Koss et al. (1987) found the prevalence of sexual victimization (any unwanted sexual contact) was 53.7 percent. For the most invasive experience reported, 14.4 percent of the women experienced sexual contact (unwanted touching or petting), 11.9 percent experienced sexual coercion (pressure or authority used to obtain intercourse), 12.1 percent experienced attempted rape, and 15.4 percent of the women had been raped (Koss et al., 1987).

Little is known about how adult sexual victimization experiences vary by ethnicity. Further, the findings of the few studies that have examined the connection between ethnicity and sexual assault are inconsistent. In the Koss et al. (1987) study, the prevalence of rape varied by ethnicity: rape was reported by 16 percent of the White women, 10 percent of the Black women, 12 percent of the His- panic women, 7 percent of the Asian women, and 40 percent of the

Ethnic Differences in Female Sexual Victimization 77

Native American women. Kalof and Wade (1995) also found Black college women reported fewer total experiences of sexual victimization (from unwanted contact to rape) than White college women.

However, in a study of students at an urban university, Abbey et al. (1996) found that Black women were somewhat more likely to have experienced a sexual assault than White women (68% vs. 57%), particularly rape (39% Black women vs. 30% White women). 1 Wyatt (1992) studied Black and White adult women in Los Angeles County and found that there were no differences in their experiences of rape since 18. Although she found that Black women reported more incidents of attempted rape than White women (27% vs. 17%), the difference was not statistically significant, and she concluded that Black and White women in the sample community were at equal risk for rape (Wyatt, 1992). In a representative sample of southern women, George et al. (1992) found no differences between Blacks and Whites in lifetime prevalence of sexual assault (being pressured or forced to have unwilling sexual contact).

Hispanic women's experiences with sexual assault were studied by Sorenson and Siegel (1992). In their sample of 3,000 adults in Los Angeles, Hispanic women had lower rates of lifetime assault than White women (8% vs. 20%), and the ethnic differences per- sisted regardless of education or age of victim. 2 Finally, in an eth- nically diverse sample of college students, Mills and Granoff (1992) found that Caucasian and Japanese women experienced more lifetime sexual victimization than did women of Black, Hawaiian, Chinese, Filipino, or mixed Asian heritage.

Ethnicity and Childhood Sexual Victimization

Studies have reported the prevalence of female childhood sexual victimization from a low of 10 percent to a high of 60 percent (Gilmartin, 1994), depending on a number of methodological issues, particularly how sexual abuse is defined. 3 For example, the most inclusive definition of sexual abuse includes a wide range of physical contact experiences such as sexual penetration and fon- dling, and non-body contact (exhibitionism, solicitations to have sex, and public masturbation) (Wyatt et al., 1993). Using this broad


definition, Wyatt (1985) found that 62 percent of her sample of women had experienced at least one incident of sexual abuse before age 18. However, in a review of the literature, Gilmartin (1994) found the best estimate range for female incest victims was between 16 percent and 21 percent, and the estimate for female victims of extrafamilial child sexual abuse was approximately 32 percent.

Most research indicates that there are no significant ethnic or social class differences in the prevalence of childhood sexual abuse (Gilmartin, 1994; Wyatt et al., 1993). 4 An exception is Kercher and McShane's (1984) study of Texas residents in which sexual victimization among Hispanics was significantly higher than among Whites. Using the broad definition of abuse (including both non- contact and contact sexual abuse), Wyatt et al. (1993) found that 1 in 2.5 Black women and 1 in 2 White women are childhood sexual abuse survivors. In a study of 105 primarily Black (80%) and His- panic (16%) women in a substance abuse treatment program, Loftus et al. (1994) found that 54 percent had experienced some form of childhood sexual abuse. And a study of women in a rape treatment center (Scott et al., 1993) found that 56 percent of the women had prior experiences with incest or rape (68% of the Black women, 47% of the White women, and 45% of the Hispanic women). Fi- nally, in her classic study of incest, Russell (1986) reported that, when compared to Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics, Asian women had the lowest rate of childhood sexual abuse.

Research indicates that women sexually abused as children are more likely than non-abused women to experience attempted rape or rape as adults (Russell, 1986). However, the research evidence is contradictory. For example, Himelein (1995) found that among a sample of 78 percent White, 19 percent Black, and 3 percent other minorities, child sexual abuse had no influence on whether a woman was victimized in college. But in a prospective study of primarily white (93%) college women, Gidycz et al. (1993) found that childhood sexual victimization was a risk factor for subsequent victimization in college. Finally, Wyatt et al. (1992) found that women who were sexually abused as children were 2.4 times more likely to experience sexual abuse as adults.

Ethnic Differences in Female Sexual Vict imizat ion 79

Ethnicity, Alcohol Use, and Sexual Victimization

Another risk factor for sexual assault is alcohol use. Most studies indicate that alcohol exacerbates the potential for sexual assault (see Himelein, 1995; Muehlenhard & Linton, 1987; Ward et al., 1991). The effect of ethnicity on alcohol use is relatively unknown, but Abbey et al. (1996) argued that since Black women drink less than White women, alcohol would be less a risk factor for sexual assaults for Blacks than for Whites. Indeed, they found that Black women were significantly more likely than White women to report that alcohol was not consumed by either the victim or the assailant during the victim's most serious sexual assault experience (Abbey et al., 1996).

My study has two major goals. First, it is an exploration of ethnic differences in a variety of sexual victimization experiences, including victimization during college and during childhood, among a sample of Black, White, Hispanic, and Asian undergraduate women. Second, multivariate analysis of variance is used to estimate possible interactions between ethnicity, childhood sexual abuse, and alcohol use on college women's sexual victimization experiences.

Method

Participants

Participants in this study were 383 undergraduate women enrolled in a large, diverse urban university? The median age of the sample was 21 years, median year in school was the third year, 85 percent were unmarried, 85 percent attended school full-time, and most (78%) were commuter students. The sample was 10 percent Black or African American, 63 percent White or Caucasian, 13 percent Asian, Pacific Islander or Filipino, 5 percent Hispanic, Chicano, or Spanish-speaking American, and 5 percent Other Ethnicity (e.g., 0.8% were American Indian or Alaskan Native, 2.9% MiddleEastern, 1.0% Indian, and 0.3% Bicultural, such as Indian/Filipino, French/Haitian, or Caribbean/French). Three percent of the sample did not give their ethnicity. The ethnic break-


down of the sample is representative of the university's undergraduate population which is 7 percent African American, 14 percent Asian, 69 percent Caucasian, 5 percent Hispanic, and 5 percent belong to other ethnic groups.

Procedures

A sample of undergraduate classes was selected from a list pro- vided by the registrar of all daytime-classes scheduled at the university during the Spring 1997 semester. The sample was representative of all disciplines and included both lower division and upper division classes. The university's provost encouraged faculty of selected classes to allow a research team of undergraduate and graduate women to administer a survey during class time. After arranging with the faculty member a convenient time for ad- ministering the survey, a team member (for large classes, two team members) attended the class, explained that the research was a study of student attitudes and experiences with sexual victimization and other relationship issues, and that participation was voluntary and confidential. The research team handed the surveys out to the students in a pre-addressed envelope, and asked that they return completed surveys either through campus mail or at drop-off boxes located throughout campus. Each survey "package" included a return envelope, an informed consent form, and the names of 12 coun- selors and 6 crisis centers on the campus and in the community who had agreed to provide free and confidential resource and re- ferral information to students that wanted to talk to someone about feelings and/or issues invoked by the survey.

Measures

College sexual victimization. Koss and Oros's (1982) Sexual Experiences Survey was used to measure victimization. All of the original 13 items were included, but the questions were slightly reworded and preceded by the phrase, "Since you have been in college (any college), have you ever been in a situation in which any of the following occurred?" The response options included never, once, and more than once. The Sexual Experiences Survey,


or the SES, (Koss & Oros, 1982) has been used extensively, and, similar to prior research, this study derived four mutually exclusive categories of victimization from a selection of items from the survey. The operationalization of the four categories follows the con- vention set in recent research on sexual victimization (see Abbey et al., 1996; Himelein, 1995). Women were categorized according to their most invasive experience of sexual victimization.

Sexual contact consisted of responses to item 7 on the SES: "Physical force was used (holding down, twisting arm, etc.) to get you to kiss or pet when you didn't want to." Sexual coercion consisted of responses to items 4 and 5 on the SES: "You had sexual intercourse with a person when you didn't really want to because your partner threatened to end the relationship," and "You had sexual intercourse with a person when you didn't really want to because you felt pressured by that person's continual arguments." Attempted rape consisted of responses to items 8 and 9 on the SES: "Sexual intercourse didn't occur but your partner attempted intercourse by threatening physical force," and "Sexual intercourse didn't occur but your partner attempted intercourse by actually using physical force." Rape consisted of responses to the statement, "You had sexual intercourse with someone when you were unable to consent because you were under the influence of alcohol or drugs," (see Koss et al., 1987) and three SES items (10, 11, and 12), "You had sexual intercourse with a person when you didn't want to because someone threatened to use physical force if you didn't cooperate," "You had sexual intercourse with a person when you didn't want to because some degree of physical force was used," and "You w e r e forced to have oral or anal sex when you didn't want to." All of the sexual victimization measures were coded 0 = never, 1 = once, and 2 = more than once.

To capture the prevalence of unacknowledged rape victims, each respondent was asked, "Have you ever been raped?" A comparison of yes responses to the raped measure with no responses on the "ever raped" measure will provide an estimate of the number of respondents who had experienced an event that meets the legal definition of rape but who do not consider the event to have consti- tuted rape.


Childhood sexual victim&ation. Each respondent was asked two questions regarding their early experiences with sexual victimization. First, "Before the age of 18, had you ever experienced any sexual activity by a close family member, relative, or close family friend? That is, did someone you trust ever ask or force you to do any sexual activities? Sexual activity can mean anything that would involve sexual parts of your body. This would include any kind of sexual exposure, touching, or intercourse (i.e., sexual activity that you did not want to happen, but did)" (Incest). [This definition of incest is similar to that used by Gilmartin (1994): "unwanted sexual acts ... which are committed by family members and others who have parental types of roles or are in positions of trust" (p. 19).] Second, "Before the age of 18, had you ever experienced any sexual activity by someone other than a close family member, relative, or close family friend? That is, did someone else ever ask or force you to do any sexual activities? Sexual activity can mean anything that would involve sexual parts of your body. This would include any kind of sexual exposure, touching, or intercourse (i.e., sexual activity that you did not want to happen, but did)" (Other sexual abuse before 18). Respondents answered "yes" or "no" to the early experience questions (coded 0 = no, 1 = yes).

Alcohol use. To measure alcohol use, respondents were asked, "When out on a date or for a social occasion, how much do you usually drink? Response options ranged from 0 (do not drink) to 6 (five or more drinks). For analysis, the alcohol use variable was coded 0 = does not drink alcohol when on a date and 1 = does drink alcohol on a date.

Resul t s

Overall Prevalence of Sexual Victimization

One-third (32.9%) of the women in the sample had experienced at least one of the four types of sexual victimization while enrolled in college. When categorized according to the most invasive experience reported, 2.5 percent had experienced sexual contact, 6.5 percent sexual coercion, 1.7 percent attempted rape, and 22.1 percent had been raped. Eighteen (4.7%) of the women did not an-


swer some or all of the victimization items, and are not included in the totals given here. Although 22.1 percent of the women had experiences that are legally considered rape, only 9.5 percent answered yes to the question, "Have you ever been raped?"

Table 1 shows that 17.5 percent of the women reported an experience of incest before age 18, or unwanted sexual activity by a family member, relative or trusted family friend. One-third of the women (34.6%) had experienced other sexual abuse before 18, or unwanted sexual activity by someone other than a family member, relative, or close family friend.

Approximately one-third (32.5%) of the women reported that they do not drink when on a date or social occasion, another one- third reported that sometimes they drink and sometimes they don't, 3.1 percent reported usually having less than one drink, 14.6 percent one or two drinks, 10.7 percent three or four drinks, and 3.4 percent five or more drinks.

Ethnic Differences in Sexual �89

The "other ethnic" category (n=21 ) was eliminated from the analy- ses of ethnic differences in sexual victimization because of the di- versity of the group, which included bicultural, American Indian, MiddleEastern, and Indian women. It would be too difficult to try to understand any patterns of experience by ethnicity that might be observed for this diverse group. Thus, the following results are based only on the responses of the Black, White, Hispanic, and Asian women.

Descriptive statistics. No victimization experiences during college were reported by 71.9 percent of the Black women, 65.4 percent of the White women, 63.2 percent of the Hispanic women, and 76.6 percent of the Asian women. For the Black women, the most invasive victimization experience was sexual coercion for 9.4 percent and rape for 18.8 percent. However, almost all of the Black women (97%) answered "no" to the question, "Have you ever been raped?"' For the White women, 3.4 percent reported sexual contact as the most invasive experience, 6 percent reported sexual coercion, 1.3 percent attempted rape, and 23.9 percent were raped. Ninety percent of the White women answered "no" to the


"Ever raped?" question. For the Hispanic women, the most serious victimization was sexual coercion for 5.3 percent, attempted rape for 10.5 percent, and rape for 21.1 percent. Among the Hispanic women, 84 percent answered "no" to the "Ever raped?" question. For the Asian women, 2.1 percent reported sexual contact as the most invasive victimization experience, 2.1 percent attempted rape, and 19.1 percent were raped. Eighty-one percent of the Asian women answered "no" to the "Ever raped?" question. Black and White women were similar in the incidence of unacknowledged rape (15% and 14%, respectively). Few Asians and Hispanics (8% and 5%, respectively) were unacknowledged rape victims.

An experience of incest was reported by 23 percent of the Black women, 16 percent of the White women, 26 percent of the His- panic women, and 21 percent of the Asian women. Other sexual abuse before age 18 was experienced by 44 percent of the Black

Table 1

Descriptive Statistics

Blm;k White Hispanic Asian Full Women Women Women Women Sample (n = 37) (n = 237) (n = 20) (n = 5 t) (n = 366)* No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes

Alcohol Use 60% 40% 24% 76% 45% 55% 41% 59% 32.5% 67.5%

Incest 77% 23% 84% 16% 74% 26% 79% 21% 82.5% 17.5%

Olher Sexual Abu~ Belore 18

56% 44% 64% 36% 80% 20% 7I% 29% 65.4% 34,6%

Sexual Coercion 76% 24% 86% 14% 89% 11% 90% 10% 84.0% 16.0%

Sexual Contact 88% 12% 87% 13% 79% 21% 81% 19% 87.0% 13.0%

Attempted Rape 94% 6% 93% 7% 74% 26% 91% 9% 93.0% 7.0%

Ra~d 82% 18% 76% 24% 79% 21% 81% 19% 77.9% 22.1%

"Have you been raped?" 97% 3% 90% 10% 84% 16% 89% 11% 90.5% 9.5%

Unacknowledged Rape Victims 15% 14% 5% 8%

*The full sample includes women of Other Ethnicity (n=21).


women, 36 percent of the White women, 20 percent of the His- panic women, and 29 percent of the Asian women. A majority (60%) of the Black women reported that they do not drink while on a date or during a social occasion, followed by Hispanic women (45%), Asian women (41%), and White women (24%).

Table 2

Multivariate Analysis of the Effect of Ethnicity, Early Vicimization, and Alcohol Use on College Experiences with Sexual Contact, Sexual Coercion, Attempted

Rape, and Rape

Efle, ct Value E dl Error df Sig. Observed

Power (a)

ETHNICITY Pillai's Trace 109 2756 12.0fx) 879.f~) .001 .986 Wilks'Lambda .894 2.779 12.000 770.205 .001 .972 Hotelling's Trace .I 16 2 793 12.000 869.000 001 ,988

INCEST Pillai's Trace .066 5.104 4.000 291.000 .001 .965 Wilks' Lambda 934 5.104 4 000 291.000 .001 .965 Hotelling's Trace 070 5.104 4000 291 000 .001 .965

OTHER SEXUAL ABUSE Pillai's Trace 041 3.147 4000 291.000 .015 .816 BEFORE 18 Wilks' Lambda 959 3147 4000 291.000 015 .816

Hotelling's Trace .043 3.147 4.000 291.000 .015 .816

ALCOHOL USE Pillai's Trace 058 4.518 4.000 291.000 .001 .940 Wilks' Lambda .942 4.518 4.000 291,000 .001 .940 Hotelling's Trace 062 4 518 4.000 291.000 001 940

ETHNICITY* INCEST Pillafs Trace .061 1.509 12.000 879.000 .115 .815 Wilks' Lambda 940 1.519 12.000 770205 .112 .753 Hotelling's Trace 063 1.528 12000 869.000 108 .821

ETHNICITY*(YI'HER Pillai's Trace 139 3547 12.000 879.000 .000 998 SEXUAL ABUSE Wilks' l,ambda 864 3632 12000 770.205 00(I 995

BEFORE 18 Hotelling's Trace 153 3.699 12000 869.000 .1300 .999

E'rHNICITY*ALCOHOL Pillai's Trace 090 2.267 12000 879.000 008 .958 USE Wiiks' Lambda .912 2.265 12000 770.205 .008 .926

.094 2.257 12.000 869.000 .008 .958 Hotelling's Trace

ET|INICITY * INCEST Pillai's Trace �9 OTHER SEXUAL Wilks' Lambda ABUSE BEFORE 18 Hotelling's Trace

E'rHNICrrY * INCEST Pillai's Trace �9 ALCOHOL USE Wilks' Larnbda

t Iotelling's Trace

ETHNICITY * OTHER Pillai's Trace SEXUAL ABUSE BEFORE Wilks' Lambda

18 * ALCOHOL USE Hotelling's Trace

ETHNIEITY * INCEST Pillai's Trace �9 OTHER SEXUAL ABUSE Wilks' Lambda

BEFORE 18 Hotelling's Trace �9 ALCOHOL USE

126 3.223 12.000 879,000 .000 .996 ,877 3.250 12000 770.205 000 .989 135 3262 12.000 869.000 000 .996

.099 2.490 12.000 879.000 .003 .975 904 2490 12 000 770.205 .003 952 .104 2501 12000 869.000 .003 ,975

./157 2125 80~1 584.(,L~0 032 .850

.944 2. [ 34 8000 582.000 .031 ,852

.059 2 142 8000 580 000 030 .854

.096 3,670 8000 584.000 .000 .986

.905 3.704 8.000 582.000 .000 987

.103 3739 8000 580.000 .(~81 .988

(a) Computed using alpha = .05.


Multivariate analysis. Table 2 shows the results of a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) of the mean scores on college experiences with sexual coercion, sexual contact, attempted rape, and rape. The MANOVA shows that, when the four college victimization measures are considered together, main effects were observed for all of the independent variables: ethnicity (p < .01), incest (p < .01), other sexual abuse before 18 (p < .05), and alcohol use (p < .01). Thus, these findings indicate that there were significant differences in the mean scores for (1) Black, White, Hispanic, and Asian women, (2) women who had and had not experienced incest, (3) women who had and had not experienced other sexual abuse before 18, and (4) women who do and do not use alcohol.

The MANOVA revealed a number of significant interactions among the variables. Significant two-way interactions were observed for ethnicity and other sexual abuse before 18 (p < .01) and ethnicity and alcohol use (p < .01). These findings indicate that the relationship between other sexual abuse before 18 and college victimization experiences differed for Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, and Asians. Similarly, the effect of alcohol use on college victimization varied by ethnicity. On the other hand, the effect of incest on college victimization experiences was the same for the women in the sample, regardless of ethnicity. 6

Table 3 reports the univariate tests for each of the college victimization measures, and Table 4 provides the group means on all six victimization measures (childhood and college) and alcohol use. The univariate tests indicated that among the college victimization experiences, sexual coercion and attempted rape differed by ethnicity. An examination of the group means shows that Black women had the highest and Hispanic women the lowest score on the sexual coercion measure.

For attempted rape, Hispanic women had the highest score, and the Black and White women had the lowest scores. Further analysis of the subpopulation means (data not shown here) indicated that, for women who had not experienced extrafamilial sexual abuse, the highest mean score on attempted rape was observed for the Hispanic women (.33), followed by the Black women (.10), the White women (.06), and the Asian women (.03). For the women

Ethnic Differences in Female Sexual Victimization

Table 3

87

Univariate F Tests for College Experiences with Sexual Coercion, Sexual Contact, Attempted Rape, and Rape

Dependent F df Significance Observed Power (a)

Emnieity

Sexual Coercion 2694 Sexual Contact 1.996 Attempted Rape 1.680 Rape .244

Incest

Sexual Coercion 1 .(~411 Sexual Contact 18 764 Attempted Rape ] 8~,37 Rape 8.226

Other Sexual Abuse Before 18

Sexual Coercion 5.644 Sexual Contact 1 779 Aitempted Rape I 953 Rape .032

Alcohol Use

Sexual Coercion 11 313 Sexual Contact 12833 Attempted Rape 12362 Rape 4568

3 (146 .653 3 .115 .511 3 000 ,988

866 .096

1 .309 .174 1 .000 .991 I 000 .990 I .004 .816

018 .658 183 .265

.163 .286 859 054

001 911; 900 .946 .001 .939 .033 .568

(a) Computed using alpha = .05.

who had experienced extrafamilial sexual abuse, the highest mean score on the attempted rape measure was observed for the Asian women (.30), followed by the Hispanic women (.25), the White women (.12), and the Black women (.06). Thus, based on the victim's ethnicity, extrafamilial sexual abuse has a different effect on subsequent experiences of attempted rape.

Sexual contact, attempted rape, and rape experiences differed significantly by whether or not a woman had experienced incest. Women who had experienced incest had significantly higher means on all of these measures than women who had not experienced incest. In addition, women who had experienced other sexual abuse before 18 had significantly higher mean scores on the college sexual coercion measure than women who had not been victims of other sexual abuse before 18. Finally, women who used alcohol had


Table 4

Group Means

ALCOHOL INCEST OTRER SEXUAL SEXUAL SEXUAL ATIEMPTED RAPE USE ABUSE BEFORE 18 COERCION CONTACT RAPE

(Range) (0-1) (0-1) (0-1) (0-2) (0-2) (0-2) (0-2)

BLACKWOMEN Mean .405 .235 .441 .333 .147 .088 .242 N 37 34 34 33 34 34 33 Std. l)ev .497 .430 .504 .645 .435 .378 .560

WI-IITEWOMEN

Mtm 359 .163 .362 .178 .160 .084 .333

N 237 238 237 236 237 236 234 Std. Dev .428 .370 .481 .481 .441 .347 .641

HISPANICWOMEN Mean .550 .263 .200 .105 .263 .315 .263

N 20 19 20 19 19 19 19 Std. lkv .510 .452 ,410 ,315 .562 .582 .562

ASIAN WOMEN Mean .588 .205 .285 .145 .255 .148 .270 N 51 48 49 48 47 47 48

Std. ~ v ,497 .410 .456 ,460 369 .509 .609

NO ALCOHOL USE Mean - .I % .365 .148 .088 .058 .147 N -- 102 104 101 102 102 102 Std. Dev - .399 .483 .455 .317 .275 .431

USES ALCOHOL Mean .. .176 .340 .194 .212 .126 .377 N -- 233 232 231 231 230 228 Std.Dev 381 .474 .503 .513 .435 .675

NOINCEST Mean .700 -- .298 .129 .114 .062 .225 N 274 -- 275 271 272 271 271 Std. Dev .458 -- .458 .3% .351 .285 .513

INCEST Mean .672 - ,580 .393 .442 .278 ,683

N 61 - 62 6l 61 6L 60 Std.Dev ,473 -- ,497 .713 719 .635 .873

NOOTHER SEXUAI.ABUSE BEFORE 18 Mean .698 .118 -- .111 .142 .078 .233 N 219 219 - 215 217 216 214 Std.Dcv .459 .324 .. .382 .422 .317 .532

ff]a'IER SEXUAL ABUSE BEFORE 18 Mean .675 .305 -- 302 .228 .144 .440 N 117 118 119 118 118 118 Std. Dev .470 .462 - .004 .513 .476 .734

TOTAL Mean .684 .182 .350 .184 .178 .107 .311 N 345 339 340 336 337 336 334 Std. Dev .465 .387 .477 .490 .467 .394 .623


higher scores on all of the college victimization measures than women who did not use alcohol.

Discussion

This study found that one-third (32.9%) of a sample of undergraduate women enrolled in a large urban university had experienced some form of sexual assault during college. The most invasive sexual victimization experience was rape for 22.1 percent of the women, attempted rape for 1.7 percent, sexual coercion for 6.5 percent, and unwanted sexual contact for 2.5 percent. More than half of the sample (52.1%) reported unwanted sexual experiences before the age of 18:17.5 percent of the women had experienced unwanted sexual activity by a family member or trusted family friend, and 34.6 percent had experienced unwanted sexual activity by someone outside the close family/family friend context.

There were substantial ethnic differences in the incidence of attempted rape and sexual coercion among the women in this study. Twenty-six percent of the Hispanic women had experienced an attempted rape during college, compared to 9 percent of the Asian women, 7 percent of the White women, and 6 percent of the Black women. The highest incidence of sexual coercion (forced intercourse through verbal threats or verbal pressure to have sex) was reported by the Black women (24%), followed by the White women (14%), the Hispanic women (11%), and the Asian women (10%). However, the prevalence of rape during college was basically similar across ethnic groups: 18 percent of the Black women had been raped, 19 percent of the Asian women, 21 percent of the Hispanic women, and 24 percent of the White women.

The prevalence of incest, or unwanted sexual activity by a close family member or trusted family friend, was highest among the Hispanic women (26%), followed by the Black women (23%), the Asian women (21%), and the White women (16%). The high incidence of familial childhood sexual abuse among the Hispanics and Asians is similar to that reported by Kercher and McShane (1984). In their study, early (before age 18) experiences of unwanted sexual activity by someone outside the close family/friend context was


reported by 29 percent of the Asian women and 20 percent of the Hispanic women. The overall prevalence of rape is higher among this sample than found in a national survey of college women (Koss et al., 1987), but almost identical to the incidence of rape found in Abbey et al.'s (1996) study of undergraduate women attending classes at a large urban community university, a sample similar to the one used here. Of course, one explanation for the higher incidence of rape found among my respondents might be that the sample was self-selected. Rape victims might have been more likely to complete and return the survey than victims of less severe sexual assault. As noted previously, disparate findings on the prevalence of victimization are often because of different definitions of what constitutes rape. But the definition of rape used here is similar to that used in most victimization studies, such as Koss and Dinero (1989), Himelein (1995), and Abbey et al. (1996): unwanted sexual intercourse, including oral or anal intercourse, obtained through force, the threat of force, or the use of alcohol or drugs. It is also possible that the higher incidence of rape in this study is due to increased awareness among college women of coercive sexual experiences that are considered rape (e.g., alcohol or drug related nonconsensual sex).

The prevalence of early sexual victimization experiences in this sample is very similar to the incidence of child sexual abuse reported in prior research (Russell, 1986; Wyatt, 1985). And the prevalence rates of later sexual coercion across ethnic groups are also similar to those reported in prior research. For example, prior research has reported that, compared to White women, Black women have been found to have a lower incidence of rape (Koss et al., 1987) and fewer overall sexual victimization experiences (Kalof & Wade, 1995).

The incidence of attempted rape among the Hispanic women is unusually high, but given the small number of Hispanics in the sample, these findings should be interpreted with caution. How- ever, even with the small number of Hispanics in the sample, multivariate analysis of variance results showed statistically significant effects of ethnicity (p < .01) on the four college victimization measures. 7 It is interesting that while the Hispanic women had the highest


rates of incest, they had the lowest rates of extrafamilial sexual abuse before age 18.

In addition to the substantial main effect of ethnicity on college victimization experiences, there were significant differences in college victimization experiences for women who had and had not experienced incest, women who had and had not experienced other sexual abuse before 18, and women who do and do not use alcohol. Victimization experiences in college increased for women who were sexually abused before age 18 and for women who used alcohol on social occasions.

Ethnicity also interacted with alcohol use and early non-incestuous sexual abuse, but not with incest. Most of the differences were observed in experiences with sexual coercion and attempted rape. These results are intriguing and indicate that college assault experiences, primarily sexual coercion and attempted rape, differed for Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, and Asians based on their use of alcohol and their before-18 non-incestuous sexual abuse experiences. Specifically, for Hispanic women early extrafamilial sexual abuse increased later victimization by sexual coercion more than it did for women of other ethnic groups. Extrafamilial sexual abuse also had a different effect on subsequent experiences of attempted rape based on the victim's ethnicity. But the effect of incestuous experiences on college assault was the same for the women in the sample, regardless of ethnicity.

The finding that prior victimization is a powerful predictor of college assault experiences has been documented in prior research (Himelein, 1995). However, this is the first study that has found that the effect of incest on college victimization is similar for women, regardless of ethnicity, but the effect of other non-incestuous early sexual abuse on college victimization is different for women based on their ethnicity.

Another striking finding of this study was the pattern of ethnic differences in unacknowledged rape among the sample. Black and White women were almost three times as likely as Hispanic women to have had experiences that meet the legal definition of rape, but do not consider themselves rape victims. Overall, 22 percent of the women reported experiences that legally constitute rape, but only


9.5 percent answered yes to the question "have you ever been raped?" The finding that Hispanic women were most likely to indicate that they had been raped is consistent with prior research. For example, in a study of childhood sexual abuse, Becerra and Iglehart (1995) found that Hispanic girls were twice as likely as non-His- panic White girls to be the source of reports that they had been sexually abused (17% vs. 9%). In addition, it has been argued that Black women are significantly less likely than other women to dis- close sexual abuse incidents because they anticipate that the community will not support them as victims or survivors, and the credibility of Black women as rape victims has not been as well established as it has for White women (Wyatt, 1992). Thus, it may be that Black women believe their reports of certain kinds of victimization (e.g., attempted rape) would not be considered credible and consequently report those incidents less often than completed rapes.

This study was limited by the characteristics of the population from which the sample was drawn. As noted earlier, the women who responded to the survey volunteered to participate and there- fore may have been more (or less) likely to have been victimized in college. The use of college student samples is an improvement over the use of clinical samples who have self-selected into treatment programs, but students samples are still a special, highly selective group. As Wyatt et al. (1993) argued, women in college are suc- cessful, motivated, and their life experiences do not represent the general population. Women who have been damaged by severe sexual abuse may not even complete high school, and thus cannot be represented in college student samples (Wyatt et al., 1993).

In addition, the women's recall of early sexual abuse may have been faulty, but there were only two questions on these early experiences and only two response possibilities (yes or no), so reliance on memory was hopefully minimal. Loftus, Polonsky, and Fullilove (1994) found that the vast majority of female childhood sexual abuse survivors remembered all or part of their abuse experiences. On the other hand, a longitudinal study of 100 mostly Black women seen in the emergency room for childhood sexual abuse found that 38


percent of them either did not remember the event or chose not to reveal the abuse to the interviewer (Williams, 1992).

Future research should explore the link established here between ethnicity and experiences with sexual victimization both before and after entering college. Further, the finding that Black women were slightly less likely than the other women in the sample to have been raped, but substantially more likely to have been verbally coerced to have unwanted intercourse during college and to have experienced extrafamilial sexual abuse before 18 indicates that Black women may be particularly vulnerable to pressure to have sex that is generated in the context of heterosexual relationships. Some support for this conclusion comes from a study of urban, working class (primarily Black and Hispanic) adolescent girls (Way, 1995). Way found that the young women were strong and outspoken in their relationships with parents, teachers, and female friends, but not in their relationships with boys. Similar to Holland and Eisenhart's (1990) observation in a sample of Black college women, the girls in Way's (1995) study did not trust boys as much as they did their parents and friends. Collins (1990) argued that Black women have developed a unique feminist consciousness from the combined effects of race, class, and gender that empowers them in relationships--my findings may have helped somewhat to clarify this assertion.

Sexual victimization has an historical and sociocultural frame- work (Razack, 1994; Sorenson & White, 1992), and this research established that there are unique cultural backgrounds and histo- ries that impact on the study of women's experiences with sexual victimization. Thus, we must take cultural background into ac- count in both research and clinical settings. For example, a victim's frame of reference or worldview must be understood in the context of multicultural counseling for rape survivors (e.g., Holaday, Leach, & Davidson, 1994). While much has yet to be learned about the sociocultural factors that influence the vulnerability of women on college campuses, this research is a step in that direction.


Notes

Thanks to Kim Eby, Connie Kirkland, Anita Aureli-Corsi, and the George Mason University Survey Research Team for assistance in survey design and data collection. I am grateful to Thomas Dietz for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this work. 1. They divided their sample into three groups: no assault, sexual coercion

(verbal pressure to have sex), or attempted/completed rape. The rape measure combined both attempted and completed rape experiences because the attempted rape group was too small in their sample for separate analysis (Abbey et al., 1996).

2. Sexual assault in the Sorenson and Siegel (1992) study was measured along a spectrum, and respondents were asked if they had ever experienced unwanted sexual contact, including touching or sexual intercourse; respondents who answered "yes" were considered to have been sexually assaulted.

3. Some researchers use criteria for childhood sexual abuse that include age of victim and perpetrator (usually a five-year difference) and/or the type of abuse (see, for example, Wyatt et al., 1993). In addition, data collection methodology has been found to influence prevalence rates. Face-to- face interviews and asking multiple questions about types of abuse brought much higher prevalence rates than self-administered question- naires and broad questioning (Wyatt et al., 1993).

4. There are ethnic differences in the type of childhood sexual abuse (contact vs. non-contact), the context of abuse (home/indoors vs. outdoors), and the age of the victim (Black women are more likely to be victimized as preadolescents, 9 -12 years old, while White women were more likely to be victimized as children, 6-8 years old (Wyatt et al., 1993)). Sanders- Phillips et al. (1995) found differences between Black and Hispanic sexually abused girls (8 to 13 years) in a California Child Abuse Clinic program. Compared to Black girls, Hispanic girls had higher scores for depression, reported higher levels of family conflict, were more likely to be abused by the biological father, and more likely to have had a sibling abused (Sanders-Phillips et al., 1995). Mennen (1995) found an interaction of ethnicity with the type of abuse on depression, anxiety, and self- worth among a sample of 134 sexually abused girls. While ethnicity alone did not predict abuse outcomes, Hispanic girls who had experienced penetration abuse had greater depression and anxiety than Black or White girls (Mennen, 1995).

5. The research also collected data from 137 male undergraduate students, but they are not included in this study. As noted in the introduction, I lament the inability to include here the men's reports from the Sexual Experiences Survey because of incomplete data.

6. Three-way interactions were significant for ethnicity, incest, and other sexual abuse before 18 (p < .01), ethnicity, incest, and alcohol use (p < .01), ethnicity, other sexual abuse before 18 and alcohol use (p < .05), and a four-way interaction was found for ethnicity, incest, other sexual


.

abuse before 18 and alcohol use (p < .01 ). While these findings of significant three- and four-way interactions are intriguing, no attempt is made here to interpret these results because of their complexity. In fact, there is reason to have confidence in the findings in spite of the small subgroup sizes. There are two ways in which sample size effects inference: it can effect the property of estimators and it influences the chances of Type I and II errors. The subsamples I analyze are in most cases large enough to justify asymptotic properties of estimators. In any event, I am using methods that are exact in small samples given reason- able assumptions about the population distributions. With regard to error rates, and as Blalock (1979) notes, with small samples, any statistically significant effects are substantively important because they require more striking relationships to be significant. Thus, rejecting the null in a small sample is evidence of a substantial effect. When the null is rejected in a small sample, the problem of concern is Type II errors and the power of the test against such errors. Power statistics reported in the last column of Table 2 show that chances of a Type II error are generally less than 0.05 and never greater than 0.25.

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