J Adolesc Health. 2015 Dec;57(6):637-42. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2015.08.015.
Thompson MP1, Kingree JB2, Zinzow H3, Swartout K4.
Abstract
PURPOSE:
Preventing sexual aggression (SA) can be informed by determining if time-varying risk factors differentiate men who follow different sexual aggression risk trajectories.
METHODS:
Data are from a longitudinal study with 795 college males surveyed at the end of each of their 4 years of college in 2008-2011. Repeated measures general linear models tested if changes in risk factors corresponded with sexual aggression trajectory membership.
RESULTS:
Changes in the risk factors corresponded with SA trajectories. Men who came to college with a history of SA but decreased their perpetration likelihood during college showed concurrent decreases in sexual compulsivity, impulsivity, hostile attitudes toward women, rape supportive beliefs, perceptions of peer approval of forced sex, and perceptions of peer pressure to have sex with many different women, and smaller increases in pornography use over their college years. Conversely, men who increased levels of SA over time demonstrated larger increases in risk factors in comparison to other trajectory groups.
CONCLUSIONS:
The odds that males engaged in sexual aggression corresponded with changes in key risk factors. Risk factors were not static and interventions designed to alter them may lead to changes in sexual aggression risk.
KEYWORDS:
College students; Epidemiology; Longitudinal design; Sexual aggression; Trajectories
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