Male Sexual Victimization by Women: Incidence Rates, Mental Health, and Conformity to Gender Norms in a Sample of British Men.

Male sexual victimization by women is often neglected within psychological research (Fisher & Pina, 2013). Not only is the topic understudied, incidence rates and associated psychological impacts are inconsistent across the literature (Depraetere et al., 2020; Peterson et al., 2011). The present study provides an additional estimate of male sexual victimization by women, explores its association with victim mental disorders, and examines the potential moderating role of conformity to gender norms. A sample of 1124 heterosexual British men completed an online survey consisting of a modified CDC National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, and measures of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and conformity to masculine norms. In the present sample, 71% of men experienced some form of sexual victimization by a woman at least once during their lifetime. Sexual victimization was significantly associated with anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. However, conformity to masculine gender norms was not a significant moderator between victimization and mental disorders. These findings further illuminate the occurrence of male sexual victimization by women, as well as the importance of continued research on the topic.

Relationship Dynamics and Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence Among Female Chinese College Students.

In China, most intimate partner violence (IPV) research focuses on male perpetration and female victimization, whereas studies on dating violence and female IPV perpetration are less common. Although research on female IPV perpetration in China has surfaced recently, there have been limited studies examining factors related to female perpetration in dating relationships in China. In the current research, we sought to examine how relationship factors, including anger management, communication problems, relationship conflict, and relationship distress, are linked with female physical and psychological IPV perpetration. We included 857 female college students in three regions in China from the International Dating Violence database. We found that Chinese women's anger management skills and communication problems were both significantly associated with physical and psychological IPV perpetration on both minor and severe levels. Furthermore, we found that relationship conflict was significantly associated with minor and severe physical abuse perpetration and severe psychological abuse perpetration. Anger management skills moderated the negative effects of relationship conflict on minor physical IPV perpetration as well as minor and severe psychological IPV perpetration. Anger management skills also moderated the negative effects of relationship distress on minor and severe physical IPV perpetration among Chinese women. Our findings suggest that it may be important to explore the role of college women's anger management skills, communication problems, and conflict resolution skills in their dating relationships, as well as to develop female-based intervention programs to increase Chinese college women's relationship skills to reduce their levels of IPV perpetration.

Sexual Coercion by Women: The Influence of Pornography and Narcissistic and Histrionic Personality Disorder Traits.

Largely overlooked in the literature, this study investigated factors influencing women's use of sexual coercion. Specifically, pornography use and personality disorder traits linked with poor impulse control, emotional regulation, and superior sense of sexual desirability were considered. Women (N = 142) aged 16-53 years (M = 24.23, SD = 7.06) were recruited from community and student populations. Participants completed the Narcissistic and Histrionic subscales of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4, in addition to the Cyber-Pornography Use Inventory to explore the influence of their pornography use (interest, efforts to engage with pornography, and compulsivity) on their use of sexual coercion. This was measured using four subscales of the Postrefusal Sexual Persistence Scale: nonverbal sexual arousal, emotional manipulation and deception, exploitation of the intoxicated, and use of physical force or threats. Multiple regression analyses revealed that pornography use, narcissistic traits, and histrionic traits significantly predicted the use of nonverbal sexual arousal, emotional manipulation and deception, and exploitation of the intoxicated. Effort to engage with pornography was a significant individual predictor of nonverbal sexual arousal and emotional manipulation and deception, while histrionic traits were a significant individual predictor of exploitation of the intoxicated. Findings were discussed in relation to existing sexual coercion literature and potential future research.

The Assessment of Forced Penetration: A Necessary and Further Step Toward Understanding Men's Sexual Victimization and Women's Perpetration.

A unique form of sexual victimization that often goes undiscussed and, therefore, underassessed is that of being forced to penetrate another person (i.e., forced penetration). Due to forced penetration being a relatively novel addition to the definition of rape, there is a lack of assessment tools that identify forced penetration cases. Thus, the goal of this study was to assess the utility and validity of new items designed to assess forced penetration. More than 1,000 participants were recruited across three different studies to assess forced penetration victimization and perpetration. The rate of forced penetration victimization ranged from 4.51% to 10.62%. Among men who reported victimization of any type, 33.8% to 58.7% of victimized men reported experiencing forced penetration across the samples, suggesting this experience is common. All new and unique cases of sexual victimization identified by the forced penetration items were those of heterosexual men. These findings suggest that assessing for forced penetration would increase the reported prevalence rates of sexual victimization, particularly in heterosexual men (and correspondingly, rates of perpetration in women).

Psychological and relational correlates of intimate partner violence profiles among pregnant adolescent couples.

We sought to identify relationship and individual psychological factors that related to four profiles of intimate partner violence (IPV) among pregnant adolescent couples: no IPV, male IPV victim only, female IPV victim only, mutual IPV, and how associations differ by sex. Using data from a longitudinal study of pregnant adolescents and partners (n = 291 couples), we used a multivariate profile analysis using multivariate analysis of covariance with between and within-subjects effects to compare IPV groups and sex on relationship and psychological factors. Analyses were conducted at the couple level, with IPV groups as a between-subjects couple level variable and sex as a within-subjects variable that allowed us to model and compare the outcomes of both partners while controlling for the correlated nature of the data. Analyses controlled for age, race, income, relationship duration, and gestational age. Among couples, 64% had no IPV; 23% male IPV victim only; 7% mutual IPV; 5% female IPV victim only. Relationship (F = 3.61, P < .001) and psychological (F = 3.17, P < .001) factors differed by IPV group, overall. Attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, relationship equity, perceived partner infidelity, depression, stress, and hostility each differed by IPV profile (all P < .01). Attachment anxiety, equity, depression and stress had a significant IPV profile by sex interaction (all P < .05). Couples with mutual IPV had the least healthy relationship and psychological characteristics; couples with no IPV had the healthiest characteristics. Females in mutually violent relationships were at particularly high risk. Couple-level interventions focused on relational issues might protect young families from developing IPV behaviors. Aggr. Behav. 43:26-36, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Alcohol Outlet Density and Young Women's Perpetration of Violence Toward Male Intimate Partners.

This paper examines the relationships between alcohol outlet density, alcohol use, and perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV) among young adult women in the US. Data were from Wave III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health; N = 4,430 in present analyses). Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine occurrence of past year IPV perpetration toward a male partner based on tract-level on-premise and off-premise alcohol outlet density, controlling for individuals' demographic, alcohol use, and childhood abuse characteristics and neighborhood socio-demographic factors. Higher off-premise alcohol outlet density was found to be associated with young women's perpetration of physical only IPV, controlling for individual-level and ecological factors. Alcohol use had an independent association with IPV perpetration but was not a mediator of the outlet density-IPV relationship. Findings suggest that considering alcohol-related environmental factors may help efforts aimed at preventing young women's use of physical violence toward partners.