Protective Behavioral Strategies and Alcohol-Related Sex Among College Students

Adverse sexual outcomes (e.g., sexual regret, sexual risk, and sexual assault) are a common experience among college students. In particular, regretted sex is reported by a third of college students and may result in psychological harm. Previous literature has found that alcohol is involved in approximately one third of regretted sex experienced by college students. A gap exists in the literature identifying who is more susceptible to experiencing a regretted sexual experience. Previous research has shown that students who implement protective behavioral strategies (PBS) while drinking are able to reduce alcohol-related negative consequences, including regretted sexual experiences. Three sub-types of PBS exist: Stopping/Limiting Drinking (SLD), Manner of Drinking (MD), and Serious Harm Reduction (SHR). The current study examines associations between regretted sexual experiences, alcohol use, and PBS. Participants were a sample of college students (n = 349) who completed a series of online surveys that assessed drinking habits, alcohol-related negative consequences (e.g., regretted sex), and PBS use. A multi-group path analysis (grouped by gender) found that alcohol use was positively associated with regretted sexual experiences. One of the three PBS sub-types, MD, was negatively associated with regretted sexual experiences. This association was mediated by alcohol use. A different PBS subtype, SHR, yielded a direct negative relationship with regretted sexual experiences for women, but not for men. Lastly, the interaction of SHR and alcohol use was significantly associated with regretted sexual experiences and varied by biological sex. Among women, low SHR potentiated the positive association between alcohol and regretted sex; in contrast, high SHR attenuated this association. In order to inform future interventions and subsequently decrease the number of alcohol-related negative consequences, further examination of differences in relationships between PBS subtypes, alcohol use, and regretted sex for men and women is warranted

Assessment of Sexual and Protective Behavioral Strategies: Development of the Sexual and Negative Dating Inventory

Adverse sexual outcomes (ASOs) including sexual violence, risky sex, and sexual regret are highly prevalent among college students, with 20-25% of female undergraduates experiencing sexual assault, at least 60% of undergraduates engaging in risky sex, and lifetime rate of regretted sexual experiences as high as 72%. ASOs are associated with increased psychological problems, increased alcohol use, and decreased protective behavioral strategies (PBS). The most recent measure of dating and sexual PBS was published over a decade ago. The current study is the development and validation of an updated measure of dating and sexual PBS; the Sexual and Negative Dating Inventory (SANDI). Data was examined from n=1,298 participants at baseline and N=336 at one-month follow-up. Participants were 19.59 (2.90 SD) years old, 67.51%, female, and 71.42% white. Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) identified a five-factor structure with good fit to the data including: Location Sharing, Assertiveness, Self-Protection, Risk Reduction and Privacy. Of sixty original items, a CFA identified a final measure of 24-items. Factors functioned differently across demographic groups, primarily for sexual and gender minorities. Convergent validity was observed with previous dating and sexual PBS measures. Divergent validity was analyzed using the PBSS-20 and accounted for 15-20% shared variance across the five SANDI factors. Test-retest reliability revealed acceptable reliability of 0.74. Logistic regression revealed significant concurrent predictive validity of ASOs at baseline with SANDI total score, Location Sharing, and Risk Reduction factors. History of risky sex and sexual regret revealed significant associations with the Assertiveness factor at baseline. At one-month follow-up, logistic regression revealed significant associations with Risk Reduction for victimization and risky sex; risky sex was also associated with total SANDI score at follow-up. Overall, the SANDI is a comprehensive measure that assesses dating and sexual PBS, validated within a college student population, and provides specific prevention and intervention targets

Conflict Management in Captive Bonobos (Pan paniscus) : Valuable Relationships, Relationship Repair, and Third- Party Interactions with Aggressors

All social animals face similar problems regarding intragroup competition over access to resources, which can lead to aggressive conflicts, and are therefore expected to have evolved mechanisms for managing the costs of conflict. Reconciliation, post-conflict affiliation between former opponents, and consolation, post-conflict affiliation directed at victims of aggression by third- parties, are two of these mechanisms and have been demonstrated widely in nonhuman primates. The Valuable Relationships hypothesis (VR) argues that individuals with valuable relationships are more likely to reconcile conflicts. VR rests on the assumption that conflict damages relationships and reconciliation serves to repair that damage. Most studies support VR but this Relationship Repair hypothesis (RR) remains untested, and while the post-conflict behavior (PCB) of chimpanzees has been widely examined, less is known about PCB in bonobos. This dissertation serves as a test of VR and RR and data presented here also examine third-party initiated interactions with aggressors during conflict, which have not been reported in bonobos. Analyses of the patterns of conflict management in the San Diego Zoo bonobo colony are inconsistent with both VR and RR. Overall, the group had a low rate of reconciliation (23.6% of conflicts reconciled), a low CCT (corrected conciliatory tendency; 6.71%), and there was no relationship between reconciliation and relationship quality or other relevant variables (sex of conflict participants, conflict intensity or context). Reconciled conflicts were less likely to be followed by continued aggression on the same day than were unreconciled conflicts. However, analysis of long-term patterns of interaction (10 days following conflicts) shows inconsistent support for RR. In the 10 days following unreconciled conflicts, there was no decrease in affiliation compared to baseline rates, which suggests the precipitating conflict did not damage the relationship. Similarly, in the 10 days following unreconciled conflicts, there was no change in the rate of aggression. The data presented here are more consistent with the Relationship Security hypothesis (RS), which argues that if reconciliation functions to repair damaged social bonds, then secure relationships may not be damaged by conflict and therefore would not require reconciliation, while insecure relationships would be more likely to be damaged by conflict and therefore more likely to reconcile. Consolation has been well-studied in the primate conflict management literature. Less understood are third-party initiated interactions with aggressors during conflicts. The data presented here serve as a test of the four main hypotheses about third-party initiated interactions with aggressors: adults will be most motivated to offer affiliation to aggressors or interfere non-aggressively in conflicts to promote social stability, gain dominance or mating benefits, or to promote self-protection by affiliating with frequent aggressors. None of these hypotheses were supported by the analysis presented here. Nearly all of the third-party initiated interactions with aggressors during conflicts were initiated by immature individuals and were directed at one adult mal

Title Ix Mandated Reporting: The Views Of University Employees And Students

Per Title IX of the Higher Education Amendments of 1972, many university employees are mandated reporters of sexual assault. University employees (N = 174) and students (N = 783) completed an online survey assessing knowledge and opinions of this reporting requirement. University employees and students generally reported being quite knowledgeable of reporting requirements. Most university employees indicated they would report an incident disclosed by a student, but students were fairly ambivalent about whether they would disclose to faculty members. Nearly one in five students (17.2%) indicated that Title IX reporting requirements decreased their disclosure likelihood. These findings suggest that mandated reporting policies, as well as how they are presented to students and faculty, should be examined in order to increase compliance and facilitate disclosure

Title IX Mandated Reporting: The Views of University Employees and Students

Per Title IX of the Higher Education Amendments of 1972, many university employees are mandated reporters of sexual assault. University employees (N = 174) and students (N = 783) completed an online survey assessing knowledge and opinions of this reporting requirement. University employees and students generally reported being quite knowledgeable of reporting requirements. Most university employees indicated they would report an incident disclosed by a student, but students were fairly ambivalent about whether they would disclose to faculty members. Nearly one in five students (17.2%) indicated that Title IX reporting requirements decreased their disclosure likelihood. These findings suggest that mandated reporting policies, as well as how they are presented to students and faculty, should be examined in order to increase compliance and facilitate disclosure