College sexual assault is a common problem, and survivors often do not report their experience to college campus officials or law enforcement for fear of not being believed. This study examined how contextual factors such as alcohol use and whether the perpetrator was described as a student-athlete or student, and rater characteristics, such as the history of sexual assault and attitudes toward rape, influenced college students' perceptions of the believability of a hypothetical victim's sexual assault account. In all, 449 ( = 449) undergraduates read a vignette describing a hypothetical sexual assault and were assigned randomly to one of four conditions with varying contextual features: college athlete-no alcohol, college athlete-alcohol, college student-no alcohol, or college student-alcohol.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite increased research on emerging adults and interpersonal violence, evidence on the role of college attendance in risk for dating violence and sexual assault is mixed. We examined the role of college attendance on victimization risk in emerging adulthood. Participants were a diverse longitudinal sample of 630 emerging adults.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe current study evaluates two predictors of adolescent sexual risk-taking, specifically whether impulse control or future expectations predict condom use and casual sex. We examine whether risky sex occurs among youth who tend to act without thinking about the future, or instead, youth who report low future expectations. We consider these relations longitudinally among a sample of sexually active justice-involved adolescent males (N = 752, M age = 15.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInstitutional review boards (IRBs) have expressed concerns that certain individuals or groups, such as participants who are younger, ethnic minorities, or who have certain psychological or personality traits, may be particularly distressed when participating in "sensitive topics" research. This study examined the effects of several demographic and individual difference factors (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObesity has become a world-wide epidemic; in the United States (U.S.) approximately two-thirds of adults are classified as overweight or obese.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn experience of child sexual abuse (CSA) substantially increases women's risk of adult sexual assault (ASA), but the mechanisms underlying this relationship are unclear. Previous research often has not examined the full range of ASA experiences or included the influence of ethnicity, sexual behavior, and sexual attitudes on CSA and severity of ASA. The current study utilized path analysis to explore the relationships among ethnicity, sexual attitudes, number of lifetime sexual partners, CSA, and severity of ASA in emerging adult women.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrauma Violence Abuse
January 2015
Sexual victimization is a prevalent problem among college-aged women. In order to investigate the mechanisms underlying sexual victimization, researchers have focused on the role of cognitive processes such as perception of sexual victimization risk, positing that difficulties with risk perception heighten women's risk for victimization. However, researchers generally have not conceptualized risk perception in the context of a comprehensive cognitive model or utilized tasks and stimuli that allow them to examine specific cognitive processes linked to increased risk for sexual victimization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To determine whether the preferred pattern of arm use after unilateral hemispheric damage was associated with better everyday functioning. Our previous work showed that right-handed stroke patients with right hemisphere damage (RHD) used their right, ipsilesional arm most frequently, while those with left hemisphere damage (LHD) used both arms together most frequently. This effect was explained by right-hand preference, but its relationship to functional performance is not known.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFViolence Against Women
March 2012
This study examined the effects of male attractiveness, sexual attitudes, and victimization history on women's ratings of sexual risk. Women with more liberal sexual attitudes rated vignettes as less sexually risky than women with more conservative sexual attitudes. There was an interaction between situational risk and attractiveness, suggesting the relationship between attractiveness and sexual risk ratings varies across high and low situational risk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe current study examined qualitatively 78 sexual victimization narratives to (a) investigate variability within Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) categories to determine whether these events shared contextual features, (b) investigate variability between SES categories to determine whether these events were contextually distinct, and (c) identify emerging contextual features of victimization experiences. Results revealed considerable variation in both within- and between-SES severity categories. Qualitative analysis also identified several emerging contextual features of victimization narratives, such as the after-party situation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Purpose: Despite strong evidence for hand preference and its impact on motor performance, its influence on stroke rehabilitation has not been routinely considered. Previous research demonstrates that patients with hemiparetic stroke use their ipsilesional, nonparetic arm 5 to 6 times more frequently than their paretic arm, but it is unknown if such use varies with laterality of hemiparesis. The purpose of our study was to determine if the right arm is used more frequently in right-handed patients with stroke.
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