Alcohol, Sexual Assault & College Women: Research Paper

Introduction

The collected data for the research entailed a systematic review of research studies. The researcher identified eight studies on alcohol and sexual assault among college women. The findings are explained for each of the study based on the authors and identified themes including alcohol and violence against women, psychological effects for the sexually assaulted females and interventions.

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Alcohol and Violence Against Women

Cowley (2014) investigated on "Let's get drunk and have sex: The complex relationship of alcohol, gender, and sexual victimization." The author interviewed forty-three college-aged people to gain an understanding of the association of alcohol and gender in the events of sexual victimization. The findings reveal that alcoholism and processes of gender are significant factors contributing to sexual assault among college-aged individuals. Twelve to fifteen percent of college women experience competed for rape while twenty-five to thirty percent of them undergo attempted rape. However, fifty percent of the sexual assaults in colleges are as a result of alcoholism. Either of the two aspects alcohol or gender dominates the other, interacting together to generate a context whereby sexual victimization is possible and likely to occur. According to Ehlke & Kelley (2019), drinking to cope motivations among college women has been identified as a mediator of the relationship between sexual coercion victimization and alcohol use. 58% of drinking college women experienced sexual coercion in their lifetime as a result of engaging in drinking to cope motivations.

McCauley, Calhoun, and Gidycz (2010) investigated binge drinking and rape among college women based on their history of previous sexual victimization. They found out that the behavior of binge drinking is associated with women experiences of abuse in the past. The rates of binge drinking were high for women with a history of sexual victimization. However, subsequent binge drinking after rape experience was associated with prior binge drinking and not the rape experience. Women with initial binge drinking habits had the likelihood of engaging in binge drinking 62 times more than their counterparts. It was also revealed that the women binge drinking habits increased their risk of subsequent rape in the future, b = 1.51, p = .01. Prior binge drinking was a predictor of the same for college women who experience sexual assault.

Tyler, Schmitz, and Adams (2017) examined alcohol expectancy, drinking behavior, and sexual victimization among female and male college students. Tyler et al. (2017) took a different perspective in exploring the subject of study by including male college students in the population. The findings of the study explain the various pathways by which risks may influence sexual assault and how those pathways may be different for male and female college students in unique ways. Drinking alcohol expectancies was established as a pathway to the risks of sexual assault for both male and female college students. Alcohol expectancies were identified as a mediator of the relationship between social factors and drinking behavior and the experience of sexual victimization. Drinking behavior was also described as a mediator of the relationship between alcohol expectancies and sexual victimization among college students. Comparison of common pathways such as hooking up, the number of friends and the type of housing revealed that they contributed to sexual victimization to males and females differently. For instance, female students with more time hooking up behavior and with friends who consume more significant amounts of alcohol have high alcohol expectancy, v = .187 and v = .282 respectively.

Woerner, Schleider, Overstreet, Foster, Amstadter, and Sartor (2019) undertook a study about the role of drinking motives and perceived controllability of events in the association between college women's sexual assault victimization and binge drinking. It was an extensive study regarding binge drinking and its relationship to sexual assault by including the motives of drinking. They established similar results to those of Tyler et al. (2017) regarding binge drinking and sexual assault victimization. Women with a history of sexual assault have increased risk of engaging in binge drinking. However, the motives of drinking including social and coping play a huge role in the link between binge drinking and sexual coercion among college women. Controllability of events, p=.029 moderate the experiences of sexual assault and the coping motives of college women. There is an indirect relationship between sexual assault and an increase in binge drinking through coping. On average, the relation is effect = 0.08, SE=0.04, 95% CI [0.02, 0.18] and high, effect = 0.12 SE=0.06, 95% CI [0.03, 0.27] under perceived controllability events.

Alcohol and Psychological Effects for the Sexually Assaulted

Cowley (2014) revealed that alcohol has psychological effects that work together with the rape myths, sex scripts as well as gender norms to make it normal for the male gender in dominating and causing violence against women. In their study, Peter-Hagene and Ullman (2018) examined the longitudinal effect of sexual assault victims' drinking and self-blame on posttraumatic stress disorder. They incorporated women sexual assault survivors in the study to gain an understanding of how alcohol plays a role in sexual assaults and the recovery outcomes. Drinking alcohol has posttraumatic stress disorder effects on drinking victims of sexual assault. However, it decreases with time as revealed in the findings, PTSD (B = 2.85, b = .18, SE = .22, p < .001). Self-blame is a behavioral and characteristic attribution of PTSD for the victims. However, behavioral self-blame is high on the people who were drinking alcohol before the sexual assault (B = 0.42, b = .17, SE = .05, p < .001) than that characteristic self-blame (B = 0.11, b = .05, SE = .05, p = .003). Therefore, there is a danger for drinking victims blaming themselves for alcohol-related rapes for their assaults.

In their cross-sectional study, Ehlke and Kelley (2019) revealed that drinking to cope motivations increases the depressive symptoms of the drinking victims. Depressive symptoms were also realized to strengthen the relationship between different ways of sexual coercion victimization as well as drinking to cope motivations as an influencer of alcohol use. College women with the experience of any type of sexual coercion had increased frequency of drinking, F(1, 212) = 5.44, p = .021 and at greater quantities F(1, 212) = 6.49, p = .012, and higher drinking to cope motivations F (1, 212) = 8.12, p = .005, with more depressive symptoms F(1, 212) = 8.35, p = .004 when compared to their counterparts.

Interventions to Sexual Assault in the Event of Alcohol Use

Pugh, Ningard, Ven, and Butler (2016) were investigating victim ambiguity and how bystander intervention is a useful way of preventing sexual assault. They were filling a research gap on the association of bystander intervention when alcohol is involved in sexual assault. The findings reveal that bystander behavior of college students is profoundly impacted by the perceptions of alcohol use and sexual assault. In events that involve alcohol situations, there is the ambiguity of the victim, and the bystander intervention will first determine whether the woman was at risk as well as her perceived worthiness. These aspects hinder bystanders from preventing sexual assault as a result of alcohol use.

Neilson, Gilmore, Pinsky, Shepard, Lewis, and George (2018) surveyed the use of drinking and sexual assault protective behavior strategies: Associations with sexual victimization and revictimization among college women. They aimed at evaluating the effective strategies that can be utilized in decreasing sexual assault victimization. The findings reveal that protective behavioral approaches (PBS) to drinking and sexual assault are useful to minimize the risk of sexual violence among college students. Sexual assault in childhood, before college, and in college are determining factors of PBS. The sexual assault history of the participants had a positive relationship with future similar experiences. Sexual victimization before college relates to an increase in since-college sexual violence as shown by the severity score of 3.82 (SD = 9.27) and 1.86 (SD = 5.87) respective. It also associates with more drinks per week v = .227, p < .001.

Interpretation of Results

The results of the study based on the emerging themes explain the importance of understanding the relationship between alcohol use and sexual assault. The different authors provided direct and indirect relationships of the relationship between the two variables. Cowley (2014) revealed that 50% of complete and attempted rapes among college women are as a result of alcoholism. It signifies that alcohol has a direct relationship to sexual assault. Drinking women are prone to being sexually victimized, unlike their counterparts. Peter-Hagene and Ullman (2018) expounded on the drinking alcohol effects to the victims of sexual assault and found out that PTSD is a common psychological effect on women who are sexually assaulted after drinking alcohol. However, the effect diminishes with time PTSD (B = 2.85, b = .18, SE = .22, p < .001). These findings explain that PSTD effects of drinking victims may not be severe in the long-term. However, the results that behavioral self-blame (B = 0.42, b = .17, SE = .05, p < .001) may increase the PSTD effects to the victim. It shows that women experiencing who do not undergo self-blame tend to heal fast from PSTD than their counterparts.

The findings of Ehlke and Kelley (2019) reveal that depressive symptoms are a mediator to the relationship between alcohol drinking and sexual assault. The authors noted that women sexually assaulted have an increased frequency of alcohol use, F (1, 212) = 5.44, p = .021 and higher drinking to cope motivations that increased their depressive symptoms, F (1, 212) = 8.12, p = .005 as a mediator to drinking alcohol. It means that sexually assaulted women as a result of using alcohol develop depressive symptoms. These findings support those of Peter-Hagene and Ullman (2018) whereby sexual coercion has psychological effects on the drinking victims. Depressive symptoms lead to more drinking of the victims and thus, increase their vulnerability to sexual assault.

McCauley, Calhoun, and Gidycz (2010) seem to support the findings of Ehlke and Kelley (2019) on the drinking habits of women who have experienced the sexual assault of any type in their lifetime. The latter revealed that college women who had experienced any sexual coercion in the past had increased frequency of drinking. McCauley et al. (2010) explained that binge drinking habits are every day with women who have past rape experiences. However, the authors expound on the reason for continued binge drinking that it is not due to the past rape experience but the prior binge drinking habits of the women.

Based on the findings of Tyler et al. (2017), one can say that there is a positive relationship between alcohol expectancies and sexual assault, as well as drinking behavior and sexual coercion. Male and female college students will experience sexual victimization differently as a result of the common pathways. It means that favorite channels have direct and indirect effects on sexual victimization. Hooking up and the number of drinking friends poses indirect effects of sexual victimization for both male and female college students through alcohol expectancy and drinking behavior.

The findings of Woener et al. (2019) explain that sexual assault relates to coping motives. There is a positive as well as...