Lisa Thomson Ross

Alcohol and Dating Risk Factors for Sexual Assault among College Women.

American societal norms frequently link alcohol, dating, and sexuality. This cross-sectional study examined the role of alcohol and dating risk factors for sexual assault among a representative sample of female students at a large urban university. Over half of the 1,160 women had experienced some form of sexual assault. Ninety-five percent of these assaults were committed by someone the woman knew and almost half of these assaults involved alcohol consumption by either the man, the woman, or both. Discriminant function analyses indicated that dating, sexual, and misperception experiences and alcohol consumption during these experiences predicted assault group status. Furthermore, alcohol consumption during consensual sex and sexual misperceptions were positively related to alcohol consumption during the sexual assault. The predictors of assault group status were similar for African American and Caucasian women. Theoretical implications are discussed and suggestions are made for combining alcohol and sexual assault prevention programming.

The role of future unpredictability in human risk-taking

Models of risk-taking as used in the social sciences may be improved by including concepts from life history theory, particularly environmental unpredictability and life expectancy. Community college students completed self-report questionnaires measuring these constructs along with several well-known correlates. The frequency of risk-taking was higher for those with higher future unpredictability beliefs and shorter lifespan estimates (as measured by the Future Lifespan Assessment developed for this study), and unpredictability beliefs remained significant after accounting for standard predictors, such as sex and temperament. The results demonstrate the usefulness of applying concepts from life history theory to enhance our understanding of human behavior.

Alcohol’s Role in Sexual Assault

A young woman who participated in one of our studies told of how she agreed to go back to her date’s house after a party, “We played quarter bounce (a drinking game). I got sick drunk; I was slumped over a toilet vomiting. He grabbed me and dragged me into his room and raped me. I had been a virgin and felt it was all my fault for going back to his house when no one else was home.” Another woman wrote, “He planned it. I believe he slipped something into my drink. I only had one drink but I was severely intoxicated. He started to rape me. I was scared, I froze, I cried, I begged him to stop.”

Family Unpredictability, Parental Alcoholism, and the Development of Parentification

The current study sought to examine whether parental alcoholism and family unpredictability contribute to the development of parentification, when children take on parental roles within the family. Participants (N = 123) from 10 outpatient clinics completed surveys that included the Retrospective Family Unpredictability Scale (Ross, 1999), the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (Jones, 1982) and the Parentification Questionnaire (Sessions & Jurkovic, 1986). Two hierarchical regression analyses confirmed that family unpredictability and parental alcoholism each made independent contributions to childhood parentification. We discuss clinical implications and suggestions for future research.

Perceived Social Support and Attributions for Failed Support

Global perceptions of social support are as stable as personality characteristics, although people occasionally must experience support that violates their expectations. To help understand this phenomenon, two studies investigated perceived support and attributions for when support is needed but not received. The authors hypothesized that persons with high perceived social support would explain that ineffective support resulted from unstable and specific factors. In contrast, low perceived social support persons were expected to make more negative attributions. In Study 1, low versus high perceived social support people made more negative attributions for hypothetical situations in which individuals needed support but did not get it. In Study 2, women described actual failed support experiences. Again, women low in social support made more negative attributions for failed support, compared to those with high support. In both studies, the relation between support and attributions could not be explained by negative emotion.

The free will inventory: Measuring beliefs about agency and responsibility

In this paper, we present the results of the construction and validation of a new psychometric tool for measuring beliefs about free will and related concepts: The Free Will Inventory (FWI). In its final form, FWI is a 29-item instrument with two parts. Part 1 consists of three 5-item subscales designed to measure strength of belief in free will, determinism, and dualism. Part 2 consists of a series of fourteen statements designed to further explore the complex network of peoples associated beliefs and attitudes about free will, determinism, choice, the soul, predictability, responsibility, and punishment. Having presented the construction and validation of FWI, we discuss several ways that it could be used in future research, highlight some as yet unanswered questions that are ripe for interdisciplinary investigation, and encourage researchers to join us in our efforts to answer these questions.

The bicycle helmet attitudes scale: using the health belief model to predict helmet use among undergraduates.

Abstract Objective: This study examined bicycle helmet attitudes and practices of college undergraduates and developed the Bicycle Helmet Attitudes Scale, which was guided by the Health Belief Model (HBM; Rosenstock, 1974, in Becker MH, ed. The Health Belief Model and Personal Health Behavior. Thorofare, NJ: Charles B. Slack; 1974:328–335) to predict reported helmet use. Participants: Students (N = 337) from a mid-sized university in the southeast completed a survey between November 2006 and November 2007. Methods: Participants completed a comprehensive survey on attitudes and behaviors relevant to bicycle helmet use. Results: The resulting Bicycle Helmet Attitudes Scale contains 57 items and represents 10 reliable subscales that reflect the HBM. Only 12% of students were self-reported helmet users. Bicycle Helmet Attitudes Scale scores captured 52% of the variance associated with helmet use; each subscale differentiated wearers from nonwearers. Men reported more media influences than did women. Conclusions: The utility of the HBM to predicted bicycle helmet use was supported. Implications for promoting cycling safety are discussed.

Dependency and self-criticism as moderators of interpersonal and achievement stress: The role of initial dysphoria

Previous research has suggested that dependency and self-criticism may increase adverse reactions to interpersonal and achievement negative life events. However, there has been insufficient attention to the rival hypothesis that these effects may result from preexisting symptoms. What appears to be a stress-enhancing effect for dependency or self-criticism may actually be a stress-enhancing effect for prior distress. This research was a prospective investigation of the role of preexisting dysphoria, dependency, and self-criticism in increasing negative reactions to interpersonal and achievement negative life events. Controlling for initial dysphoria in a prospective design, dependent subjects displayed greater increases in dysphoria following interpersonal events, but not achievement events. Highly self-critical subjects also exhibited greater increases in dysphoria following interpersonal events and displayed a trend for achievement events. However, dysphoric persons displayed greater increases in dysphoria following interpersonal, but not achievement events, suggesting that some of the observed effects for dependency and self-criticism could result from prior dysphoria. When the greater vulnerability of dysphoric persons to interpersonal events was controlled statistically, the ability of cognitive variables to predict reactivity to interpersonal events was reduced substantially.

Drinking and parental unpredictability among adult children of alcoholics: a pilot study.

Within-family differences that mediate the relationship between family history for alcoholism and alcohol consumption were investigated. Twenty adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs) and 20 children of social drinking parents (non-ACOAs) were interviewed in 1991 (mean age 24.2 years). Participants described family functioning while growing up and indices of their alcohol consumption. Family history for alcoholism had a direct association with two aspects of drinking. ACOAs reported more lifetime drinks and tended to report drinking more frequently during high school, as compared to non-ACOAs. ACOAs also reported more parental unpredictability, which in turn was associated with the above drinking indices. Finally, family history for alcoholism had an indirect association with drinking, as unpredictability mediated this relationship. Research and prevention implications are discussed.

Nonconsensual Sexual Experiences and Alcohol Consumption Among Women Entering College

The authors investigated the relationship between precollege nonconsensual sexual experiences (NSEs) and drinking among women entering college. College women (N = 797) at a midwestern university participated. Eighteen percent reported one or more NSE prior to arriving at college. Having a precollege NSE was associated with recent drinking, binge drinking, and negative drinking consequences. The authors discuss implications for intervention and prevention programs targeting college women.