To differentiate sexual coercion from possible incidents of child abuse, the survey instructed students not to include experiences with family members. The college students were 46 percent white, 21 percent black, 18 percent Asian-American, 10 percent Latino and 5 percent multiracial. Among the high school students, 42 percent were white, 17 percent black, 15 percent Asian-American, 15 percent Latino and 11 percent multiracial. College students completed them electronically or in the classroom. High school students completed the surveys on paper in the classroom. The study participants consisted of 54 high school teens and 230 college students, ages 14 to 26. In the written descriptions, significantly more Latinos reported sexual coercion, at 40 percent compared with 8 percent of Asian-Americans, 19 percent of whites and 22 percent of African-American students. Whites reported a significantly greater proportion of coercion that resulted in attempted sex compared to multiracial victims. Asian-American students reported significantly fewer sexual coercion experiences compared with the other groups. The type and frequency of sexual coercion varied according to the victims’ ethnicity. Instead it may inadvertently be consistent with expectations of masculinity and sexual desire, though more research is needed to better understand this relationship,” French said. “It may be the case that sexual coercion by women doesn’t affect males’ self-perceptions in the same way that it does when women are coerced. However, having unwanted sex did not appear to affect the victims’ self-esteem. Half of the students said they ended up having intercourse, 10 percent reported an attempt to have intercourse and 40 percent said the result was kissing or fondling.īeing coerced into having sexual intercourse was related to risky sexual behaviors and more drinking among the victims, and students who were sexually coerced while drunk or drugged showed significant distress, according to the findings.
high school and college students who responded to a survey about unwanted sexual encounters, 18 percent reported sexual coercion by physical force 31 percent said they were verbally coerced 26 percent described unwanted seduction by sexual behaviors and 7 percent said they were compelled after being given alcohol or drugs, according to the study. “Our findings can help lead to better prevention by identifying the various types of coercion that men face and by acknowledging women as perpetrators against men.” French, PhD, of the University of Missouri. “Sexual victimization continues to be a pervasive problem in the United States, but the victimization of men is rarely explored,” said lead author Bryana H. WASHINGTON - A large proportion of teenage boys and college men report having been coerced into sex or sexual behavior, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.Ī total of 43 percent of high school boys and young college men reported they had an unwanted sexual experience and of those, 95 percent said a female acquaintance was the aggressor, according to a study published online in the APA journal Psychology of Men and Masculinity ®.