The evaluation of a sexual assault risk reduction program: a multisite investigation.

This article summarizes the results of the Ohio University Sexual Assault Risk Reduction Project, which is a program designed to reduce college women's risk for sexual assault. The program was evaluated at 2 separate universities with 762 women. Participants were randomly assigned either to the program or to the no-treatment comparison group, and they completed measures that assessed sexual victimization, dating behaviors, sexual communication, and rape empathy at the pretest and at the 2-month and 6-month follow-ups. At the 2-month follow-up, there were no differences between the groups on any of the outcome measures. However, those women who were moderately victimized during the 2-month follow-up were significantly less likely to be revictimized during the 6-month follow-up period if they participated in the program.

Cognitive behavioral and behavioral interventions help young children cope during a voiding cystourethrogram.

OBJECTIVE: To reduce young children's distress and increase coping behavior among children undergoing a voiding cystourethrogram (VCU). METHODS: Three- to seven-year-old children were stratified based on prior VCU experience and randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 20) or a standard care (n = 20) condition. The intervention included provision of information, coping skills training, and parent coaching. We hypothesized that the intervention would reduce children's distress as assessed by child report, parent and technician ratings, and behavioral observations. RESULTS: Children in the intervention displayed fewer distress behaviors and greater coping behaviors and were rated as more cooperative than children receiving standard care. Children's fear and pain ratings did not differ significantly between groups. CONCLUSIONS: A cognitive-behavioral treatment package effectively reduced children's distress, increased coping, and increased cooperation during voiding cystourethrogram procedures. This type of an intervention should be integrated into routine pediatric radiological procedures.

Child sexual abuse prevention programs: a meta-analysis.

Conducted a meta-analytic evaluation of the effectiveness of school-based child abuse prevention programs. Literature searches identified 27 studies meeting inclusion criteria for use in this meta-analysis. The average effect size for all programs studied was 1.07, indicating that children who participated in prevention programs performed 1.07 SD higher than control group children on the outcome measures used in the studies. Analysis of moderator variables revealed significant effects for age, number of sessions, participant involvement, type of outcome measure, and use of behavioral skills training. Most important, programs presented over 4 or more sessions that allowed children to become physically involved produced the highest effect sizes. Although most often used only with younger children, findings suggest that active, long-term programs may be more effective for children of all ages.

Unacknowledged versus acknowledged rape victims: situational factors and posttraumatic stress.

Investigators of sexual assault have found that a substantial number of women who have been raped do not conceptualize their experiences as such. The present investigation examined differences between 40 unacknowledged rape victims and 20 women who acknowledged their experience as rape in a sample of college women, as well as a control group of 23 nonvictims. Groups were compared in terms of situational factors, postassault symptomatology, defense mechanisms, dissociative disorders, and sexual revictimization. In comparison to unacknowledged victims, acknowledged victims reported more forceful assaults and indicated more resistance and clearer refusal. Acknowledged victims exhibited more posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms than unacknowledged victims, who exhibited more symptoms than nonvictims, as measured by clinical interview. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Evaluation of a sexual assault prevention program.

The purpose of this investigation was to empirically evaluate a sexual assault prevention program. Of the 360 female college students who participated in the investigation, 181 students were in the treatment group and 165 students were in the control group. Although the program was not effective in decreasing the incidence of sexual assault for women with a sexual assault history, it was effective in decreasing the incidence of sexual assault for women without a sexual assault history. The program also led to a decrease in dating behaviors found to be associated with acquaintance rape and an increase in knowledge about sexual assault for the treatment group. The implications of these results for future preventive efforts are discussed.

A comparison of body image perception in bulimics, restrainers, and normal women: an extension of previous findings.

Figure drawings ranging from very thin to heavy (Stunkard, Sorenson, & Schulsinger, 1980) were utilized to assess body-image perception in a group of women with bulimia nervosa, a group classified as restrained eaters, and a non-eating-disordered group of women. Participants were asked to choose the figures that most resembled their current figure, their ideal figure, and the figure they believed was most attractive to men. All women chose an ideal figure that was thinner than their current figure. However, the size of the discrepancy between their current and ideal figure was significantly larger for the bulimic group compared with the non-eating-disordered women. Furthermore, while the non-eating-disordered women rated their current figure similar to the size that they believed men would find most attractive, both the bulimic group and the restrained eaters rated their current figure larger than what they believed men would find most attractive. Finally, although it was hypothesized that the bulimic group would desire a figure even thinner than what they believed men would find most attractive, this hypothesis was not supported, as all three groups of women chose an ideal figure similar to the figure that they believed men would find most attractive. These present results are compared with previous investigations which utilized similar methodologies.

Predictors of long-term sexual assault trauma among a national sample of victimized college women.

Several multivariate studies have attempted to delineate the major predictors of long-term, sexual assault-induced aftereffects. The present study was an attempt to extend previous work by supplementing known preassault, assault, and postassault predictors of trauma with cognitive measures. The data were cross-sectional and included responses from 1,213 victims of sexual assault who were recruited from a national sample of higher education students. Utilizing hierarchical multiple regression analyses and a cross-validation procedure, the results suggested that the prior mental status of the victims, the forcefulness of the assaults, as well as two cognitive variables related to a victim's beliefs about sex and relationships predicted victims' scores on standardized measures of anxiety and depression. The relationships were such that the most traumatized victims were those women who had evidenced a history of mental health problems, who had experienced the more aggressive assaults, who tended to believe that people in relationships are not trustworthy, and tended to place conservative restrictions on the sexual acts and circumstances under which sex should occur. Taken together these variables accounted for between 9%-14% of the variance in sexual assault aftereffects. The discussion emphasizes the contribution of cognitive processes to the understanding of sexual assault trauma.

The impact of adolescent sexual victimization: standardized measures of anxiety, depression, and behavioral deviancy.

Standardized measures of depression, anxiety, and behavioral deviancy were administered to a nonclinical sample of 67 high school girls (M age = 16.3; SD = 1.28). In addition, an adolescent version of the Sexual Experiences Survey was administered to assess the history of peer sexual victimization. In this sample, 55.0% of the girls had experienced at least one sexual victimization, including 7.5% of them who had experienced completed forcible rape. Data were analyzed via multivariate analysis of variance and multiple regression. Sexually victimized girls scored significantly higher than nonvictimized girls on the Trait Anxiety Index and the Beck Depression Inventory, but not on the Antisocial Index of the Jesness Inventory. The extent of victimization contributed significantly to the prediction of both the depression score and the anxiety score. The clinical significance of the reported symptoms is discussed. Although the study was not based on a probability sample, the prevalence of rape was consistent with existing literature. Because the sample was limited to girls who have remained involved in social systems, the measured symptoms probably are a conservative estimate of retrospectively measured postassault standardized test scores among sexually victimized adolescents.