Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2019

Publication Title

Psychology of Violence

Volume

9

Abstract

Objective: Sexual victimization affects at least one in five college women and up to one in six college men; however, the exact rates of sexual perpetration are difficult to ascertain because of inconsistencies in the measurement of these behaviors. The present study is the first to evaluate the extent to which three commonly used measures of sexual violence (The Sexual Experiences Survey- Short Form Victimization (SES-SFV), The Sexual Experiences Survey-Short Form Perpetration (SES-SFP) and the Revised Conflicts Tactics Scales-Sexual Coercion Subscale (CTS2-SC)) concurred in identifying cases of sexual victimization and sexual perpetration. This is the first study to simultaneously examine victimization and perpetration, provide kappa estimates of discordance, and control for order of survey administration effects.

Methods: Undergraduate men (N = 397) completed the study measures in a randomized order.

Results: The SES-SFV identified 109 cases of sexual victimization (27.5% of the sample) while the CTS2-SC identified 164 cases (41.3% of the sample). Results were similar for sexual perpetration. There was no effect of the order of administration on sexual victimization reports. However, there was an order effect for sexual perpetration. When the CTS2-SC was administered first response rates on the CTS2-SC were higher.

Conclusions: These results highlight the lack of precision in the measurement of sexual violence. Conceptually, the SESs should identify a greater number of cases; yet we consistently found that the CTS2-SC identified more cases of sexual violence. We suggest that differences in the instructional cues, internal item structure, and measure structure may account for these differences.

Issue

4

First Page

481

Last Page

489

DOI

10.1037/vio0000199

ISSN

2152-081X

Rights

©American Psychological Association, 2019. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. Please do not copy or cite without author's permission. The final article is available, upon publication, at: R. E. Anderson, S. P. Cahill, and D. L. Delahanty, “Discordance between the Sexual Experiences Surveys—Short Forms and the Revised Conflict Tactics Scales in college men.,” Psychology of Violence, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 481–489, 2019. DOI: 10.1037/vio0000199

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Measuring SV Among College Men.pdf (30 kB)
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