H. Lorraine Radtke

Efficacy of a Sexual Assault Resistance Program for University Women

BACKGROUND Young women attending university are at substantial risk for being sexually assaulted, primarily by male acquaintances, but effective strategies to reduce this risk remain elusive. METHODS We randomly assigned first-year female students at three universities in Canada to the Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act Sexual Assault Resistance program (resistance group) or to a session providing access to brochures on sexual assault, as was common university practice (control group). The resistance program consists of four 3-hour units in which information is provided and skills are taught and practiced, with the goal of being able to assess risk from acquaintances, overcome emotional barriers in acknowledging danger, and engage in effective verbal and physical self-defense. The primary outcome was completed rape, as measured by the Sexual Experiences Survey-Short Form Victimization, during 1 year of follow-up. RESULTS A total of 451 women were assigned to the resistance group and 442 women to the control group. Of the women assigned to the resistance group, 91% attended at least three of the four units. The 1-year risk of completed rape was significantly lower in the resistance group than in the control group (5.2% vs. 9.8%; relative risk reduction, 46.3% [95% confidence interval, 6.8 to 69.1]; P=0.02). The 1-year risk of attempted rape was also significantly lower in the resistance group (3.4% vs. 9.3%, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS A rigorously designed and executed sexual assault resistance program was successful in decreasing the occurrence of rape, attempted rape, and other forms of victimization among first-year university women. (Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the University of Windsor; SARE ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01338428.).

Attributions of responsibility for an incident of sexual harassment in a university setting

The present study replicated and extended research on the effects of observer characteristics (i.e., gender and traditional vs. less traditional attitudes) on attributions of responsibility in a case of sexual harassment. Participants (120 males, 120 females) were randomly assigned to one of six conditions that varied the gender of the victim and the victims reaction. A sexual harassment scenario involving a university student and professor of the opposite gender was presented as an audiotape of the victims account. Participants with less traditional attitudes attributed less responsibility to the victim than did participants with traditional attitudes. Females attributed more responsibility to the perpetrator and the victim of the same gender than did males. Victim reaction interacted with participant gender; males responded in a manner that was consistent with the reaction manipulation, whereas females attributed less responsibility to the self-blaming victim than to either the perpetrator-blaming or control victims. The results are discussed in the light of attribution theory and previous research.

Episodic and semantic memory in posthypnotic amnesia: A reevaluation.

Recently, Kihlstrom found that a suggestion for posthypnotic amnesia produced impairments on episodic but not semantic memory tasks. During amnesia testing, highly and very highly susceptible subjects showed reduced recall for a previously learned word list but no deficits on a word association task designed to elicit the forgotten words as associates. He hypnotized that posthypnotic amnesia involved a dissociation between episodic and semantic components of memory. We tested the alternative hypothesis that Kihlstroms findings resulted from experimental demands conveyed by the wording of the amnesia suggestion he employed. We found that subjects could be induced to show only episodic impairments (thereby replicating Kihlstrom) or both episodic and semantic impairments (contrary to Kihlstrom) by subtly varying the wording of amnesia suggestions. These findings are inconsistent with a dissociation hypothesis. Instead, they support the notion that hypnotic amnesia is a strategic enactment strongly influenced by expectations generated in the amnesia testing situation.

Dilemmatic Negotiations: The (UN)Tenability of Feminist Identity

We explored how women talk about feminism and feminists and position themselves in relation to a feminist identity within a conversational setting. Nine pairs of female graduate and senior undergraduate students talked about feminism in sessions lasting 60 minutes. Sessions were analyzed using discourse analysis. Participants positioned themselves in multiple ways in relation to feminism. Notably, a feminist subject position was both difficult to take up and difficult to reject. In resolving the dilemma, to be or not to be feminist, participants drew on three interpretative repertoires: a liberal version emphasizing equality and rights, an extremist version emphasizing undesirable extremism, and a lifestyle feminist version entailing being feminist by virtue of how one lives. We discuss the implications of this multiplicity for conceptualizing feminist identity and for feminism as a political project.

The Relationship Between Absorption, Openness to Experience, Anhedonia, and Susceptibility

Examination of the absorption (Tellegen Absorption Scale [TAS] of Tellegen & Atkinson, 1974), openness to experience (OTE Inventory of Costa & McCrae, 1978), and anhedonia (ANH Scales of L. J. Chapman, J.P. Chapman, & Raulin, 1976) scales suggested that they might be conceptually related. Given the reliable relationship between TAS and hypnotic susceptibility, the authors were interested in studying OTE and ANH as possible personality correlates of hypnotic susceptibility. 2 studies, 1 involving a community sample and the other a sample of university students, were conducted to assess the relationships between the TAS, OTE, and ANH scales and hypnotic susceptibility. As predicted, in Study 1 (community sample) the TAS and OTE inventories were positively correlated with one another and both were negatively correlated with the ANH scale. This pattern of correlations was replicated in Study 2 (university sample), but only TAS correlated significantly with hypnotic susceptibility. Factor analyses further confirmed these findings. It was concluded that the conceptual relationship among the TAS and the OTE and ANH scales resides in some dimension other than hypnotic susceptibility.

Constrained by choice: Young women negotiate the discourses of marriage and motherhood

This project explored young women’s identity constructions in the context of competing and changing cultural ideals of womanhood, such as feminist discourses and neoliberal discourses of choice and individualism. Specifically, we were interested in how young women attending university in the new millennium envisioned their futures. Thirty women, aged 18–26, who were university students taking courses in Psychology, participated in 15 research conversations with two participants and an interviewer. Using discourse analysis, we show how the young women routinely privileged the ideal of women as wives and mothers, yet positioned themselves as autonomous individuals making free choices and, thereby, personally responsible for managing the problems in their lives. They also ignored gender politics by avoiding or glossing over talk about women’s inequality and criticisms of traditional family and workplace arrangements.

Being a Mother and Living with Asthma: An Exploratory Analysis of Discourse

Although contemporary scholarship on the psychology of women has recognized the significance of motherhood for women, this positioning has received little attention from researchers interested in women and chronic illness. In this article we begin to fill this gap by exploring the complexity of being a mother when women are chronically ill. We focus on mothers with asthma and, adopting a discursive approach, analyze three interviews with asthmatic mothers using discourse analysis to explore how they negotiate their identities. The women were white, Dutch autochthones, who ranged in age from 31 to 60 years. Two were diagnosed with asthma in early childhood and one was diagnosed at age 40. We argue that being a mother is relevant to how women live with asthma.

Sexual violence in the lives of first-year university women in Canada: no improvements in the 21st century

BackgroundSummarizes the frequency, type, and context of sexual assault in a large sample of first-year university women at three Canadian universities.MethodsAs part of a randomized controlled trial assessing the efficacy of a sexual assault resistance education program, baseline data were collected from women between ages of 17 and 24 using computerized surveys. Participants’ experience with sexual victimization since the age of 14 years was assessed using the Sexual Experiences Survey--Short Form Victimization (SES-SFV).ResultsAmong 899 first-year university women (mean age = 18.5 years), 58.7% (95% CI: 55.4%, 62.0%) had experienced one or more forms of victimization since the age of 14 years, 35.0% (95% CI: 31.9%, 38.3%) had experienced at least one completed or attempted rape, and 23.5% (95% CI: 20.7%, 26.4%) had been raped. Among the 211 rape victims, 46.4% (95% CI: 39.7%, 53.2%) had experienced more than one type of assault (oral, vaginal, anal) in a single incident or across multiple incidents. More than three-quarters (79.6%; 95% CI: 74.2%, 85.1%) of the rapes occurred while women were incapacitated by alcohol or drugs. One-third (33.3%) of women had previous self-defence training, but few (4.0%) had previous sexual assault education.ConclusionsFindings from the first large Canadian study of university women since the 1990s indicate that a large proportion of women arrive on campuses with histories of sexual victimization, and they are generally unprepared for the perpetrators they may face during their academic years. There is an urgent need for effective rape prevention programs on university campuses.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT01338428. Registered 13 April 2011.

Secondary and 2-Year Outcomes of a Sexual Assault Resistance Program for University Women

We report the secondary outcomes and longevity of efficacy from a randomized controlled trial that evaluated a novel sexual assault resistance program designed for first-year women university students. Participants (N = 893) were randomly assigned to receive the Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) program or a selection of brochures (control). Perception of personal risk, self-defense self-efficacy, and rape myth acceptance was assessed at baseline; 1-week postintervention; and 6-, 12-, 18-, and 24-month postrandomization. Risk detection was assessed at 1 week, 6 months, and 12 months. Sexual assault experience and knowledge of effective resistance strategies were assessed at all follow-ups. The EAAA program produced significant increases in women’s perception of personal risk, self-defense self-efficacy, and knowledge of effective (forceful verbal and physical) resistance strategies; the program also produced decreases in general rape myth acceptance and woman blaming over the entire 24-month follow-up period. Risk detection was significantly improved for the intervention group at post-test. The program significantly reduced the risk of completed and attempted rape, attempted coercion, and nonconsensual sexual contact over the entire follow-up period, yielding reductions between 30% and 64% at 2 years. The EAAA program produces long-lasting changes in secondary outcomes and in the incidence of sexual assault experienced by women students. Universities can reduce the harm and the negative health consequences that young women experience as a result of campus sexual assault by implementing this program. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ’s website at http://journals.sagepub.com/page/pwq/suppl/index.

Starting “Real” Life: Women Negotiating a Successful Midlife Single Identity

Previous research has argued that despite the historically shifting meanings of singleness and family relationships, the “single woman” remains a “deficit identity.” We wondered whether this is the case for women who are at a point in their lives when meeting the married-with-family standard is becoming less probable. Interviews were conducted with 12 women (ages 35–44) who lived in Western Canada and identified as “never married,” “non-mother,” and “midlife.” Data were analysed using discourse analysis. Participants negotiated a space where being single is constructed as normal, while at the same time answering to normative discourses of womanhood. They resisted the deficit identity of singleness by drawing on the “transformative midlife” interpretative repertoire, which constructed midlife as a time of creating a secure, independent life. In doing so, they positioned themselves as “comfortably single at midlife women,” an identity defined in terms of who the woman is. Our analysis offers a depiction of midlife as a continuous struggle to create and maintain this space.