Pamela McAuslan

A Longitudinal Examination of Male College Students’ Perpetration of Sexual Assault

Self-administered surveys were completed by 197 men in college at 2 time points, 1 year apart. Men who committed sexual assault at multiple time points (repeat assaulters) had the most extreme scores on measures of hostility toward women, past sexual experiences, drinking in sexual situations, and adolescent delinquency. Nonassaulters had the least extreme scores and men who committed sexual assault at only 1 time point had scores that tended to fall in between. Repeat assaulters also expressed significantly less remorse when they described their sexual assault at Time 1 than did past assaulters who committed sexual assault only at the initial time point. These findings demonstrate the importance of initiating prevention and treatment programs in early adolescence, before longstanding attitudes and behaviors tolerant of sexual assault are established.

Attitudinal, Experiential, and Situational Predictors of Sexual Assault Perpetration

Past research demonstrates that sexual assault perpetration is caused by multiple factors including attitudes, early experiences, and situational factors. In this study, 343 college men described either a sexual assault they had committed or their worst date. Discriminant function analysis indicated that attitudes about gender roles and alcohol, number of consensual sex partners, how well the man knew the woman, how isolated the setting was, alcohol consumption during the event, the mans misperception of the womans cues during the event, and prior consensual sexual activity between the man and the woman discriminated between sexual assaults and worst dates. Additionally, tactics used to obtain sex, self attributions, the perceived seriousness of the assault, and the extent to which it disrupted relationships with others significantly discriminated between men who committed forced sexual contact, sexual coercion, and rape. These results demonstrate the importance of considering both individual characteristics and situational factors in theories and prevention activities.

The Relationship Between the Quantity of Alcohol Consumed and the Severity of Sexual Assaults Committed by College Men

Researchers have suggested that intoxicated perpetrators may act more violently than other perpetrators, although empirical findings have been mixed. Past research has focused on whether or not alcohol was consumed, rather than the quantity consumed, and this may explain these inconsistent findings. The authors hypothesized that the quantity of alcohol consumed would have a curvilinear relationship to the severity of the assault. Data were collected from 113 college men who reported that they had committed a sexual assault since the age of 14. The quantity of alcohol that perpetrators consumed during the assault was linearly related to how much aggression they used and was curvilinearly related to the type of sexual assault committed. The quantity of alcohol that victims consumed during the assault was linearly related to the type of sexual assault committed. Strategies for improving assessment of alcohol consumption in sexual assault research are discussed.

Explicating Alcohol's Role in Acquaintance Sexual Assault: Complementary Perspectives and Convergent Findings

This article summarizes the proceedings of a symposium presented at the 2004 meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. There were four presentations and a discussant. The symposium was co-chaired by Tina Zawacki and Jeanette Norris. The first presentation was made by Jeanette Norris, who found that alcohol consumption and preexisting alcohol expectancies affected womens hypothetical responses to a vignette depicting acquaintance sexual aggression. The second presentation was made by Joel Martell, who reported that alcohol-induced impairment of executive cognitive functioning mediated the effect of intoxication on mens perceptions of a sexual assault vignette. In the third presentation, Antonia Abbey found that the experiences of women whose sexual assault involved intoxication or force were more negative than were the experiences of women whose sexual assault involved verbal coercion. The fourth presentation was made by Tina Zawacki, who reported that men who perpetrated sexual assault only in adolescence differed from men who continued perpetration into adulthood in terms of their drinking patterns and attitudes toward women. William H. George discussed these findings in terms of their implications for theory development and prevention programming.

Self-Doubt During Emerging Adulthood The Conditional Mediating Influence of Mindfulness

Emerging adulthood (EA) is a critical time for identity exploration and making decisions regarding the future. Although most thrive, some emerging adults struggle with the prominent developmental features of this time. Little is known about factors that may positively influence development during EA. This study examined the mediating impact of mindfulness on the relationship between normative emerging adult processes (identity exploration, experimentation/possibilities, negativity/instability, self-focus, and feeling in-between) and self-doubt, while simultaneously considering the moderating effect of age and gender. Using data from the EA Measured at Multiple Institutions project, reports from 1,293 participants were utilized. Mindfulness mediated the relationship between various aspects of development (negativity/instability, self-focus, and feeling in-between) and self-doubt with age and gender moderating aspects of these relationships. The findings highlight the importance of mindfulness during this important developmental period.

Self‐Promotion Statements in Video Resumes: Frequency, Intensity, and Gender Effects on Job Applicant Evaluation

Although video resumes have received a substantial amount of media attention and there seems to be a growing awareness among Human Resource professionals of video‐based job applications, little is known about the effect of video resumes on applicant evaluation. This research investigates the effectiveness of self‐promotion within the context of video resumes. Self‐promotion frequency and intensity and applicant gender were manipulated. Ratings by recruiters and college students indicate that high levels of self‐promotion in video resumes are ineffective for male applicants and potentially detrimental for female applicants. Job applicants should use caution when attempting to promote themselves using video resumes. More research is needed on impression management tactics used at the earliest stages of selection and on the mechanisms operating within video resumes that impact applicant evaluation.

Factors associated with the course of maternal fatigue across the early postpartum period

Background: Relatively little is known about the course and persistence of fatigue across the postpartum period, despite the potentially adverse effects fatigue has on maternal daily functioning, well-being, parenting behaviour and parent–child interactions. Objective: Using multi-wave data over a 4-month period in the postpartum, the present study sought to: (a) examine the course of maternal fatigue, and (b) identify a range of potentially modifiable individual and contextual factors associated with the course of fatigue over this time. Methods: Seventy mothers of infants aged between 0 and 7 months participated in the current study. To measure change over time and predictors of fatigue, latent growth curve analysis was used. Results: The results indicated that maternal fatigue at approximately three months postpartum was moderate to high, with little or no change in fatigue severity over time. Higher fatigue scores at three months postpartum were also significantly associated with younger maternal age, higher socioeconomic disadvantage, low self-efficacy to engage in health behaviours and poor sleep quality. Older maternal age and poor sleep quality were associated with stability of fatigue over time. Conclusions: Findings underscore the importance of identifying and supporting women experiencing high levels of fatigue in the first seven months postpartum. Additionally, findings highlight potential risk factors for initial and persistent fatigue, possibly allowing the identification of women who might be more vulnerable to fatigue. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Using the Media Practice Model to Examine Dating Violence in Emerging Adults.

Intimate partner violence (IPV), in particular dating violence, occurs at alarmingly high rates in emerging adulthood and is associated with negative consequences. Various predictors of dating violence have been studied, but few studies have considered the role of media outside of aggressive media consumption. Based on the Media Practice Model (Steele & Brown, 1995), the present study examined measures of early experiences (e.g., family relationships, peer support of aggression), individual factors (e.g., religiosity, self-esteem, dating and sexual experiences), media use (identification, influence, and preference for aggressive media), as well as attitudes supportive of violence and dating violence victimization and perpetration. Participants were 417 emerging adults (71% female) who completed an online survey. The majority of the sample had both experienced and perpetrated some type of dating violence. The final multigroup structural equation model fit the data adequately with relatively few gender differences. Having more conflict-laden, less supportive early family relationships was related to numerous risk factors (e.g., less religiosity, having peers who were more supportive of aggression, lower self-esteem), which generally related to the media variables, specifically greater identification with people in the media, as well as more influence by and preference for aggressive media. In general, there was evidence that media use mediated the relationships between early lived experience, individual factors, and attitudes accepting of aggression in relationships, as well as overall experience with dating violence. Implications for future research and preventative programing including conflict resolution training and media literacy programing for both young people and families, are discussed.

Billboard Hot 100 Songs: Self-Promoting Over the Past 20 Years.

Research suggests that an increase in narcissism and individualism in contemporary Western society corresponds with greater self-focus depicted in cultural products (Morling & Lamoreaux, 2008). However, little attention has been given to popular music within this context (DeWall, Pond, Campbell, & Twenge, 2011). The current study examines changes in self-promotion (e.g., references to self, bragging, demands for respect), and the sociodemographic characteristics of both artists and audiences as they relate to self-promoting tendencies in popular music. Data were obtained using Billboard Hot 100 songs for the years 1990, 2000, and 2010. The most popular music in 2010 contained significantly more types of self-promotion than music from previous decades. This change reflects characteristics of genres (e.g., rap/hip-hop, pop, dance) that have gained popularity among younger audiences, but also corresponds to larger societal changes in individualism. Songs by male artists and African American artists were more likely to contain self-promotion than those by female or Caucasian artists. These differences are considered within the context of past theory and research related to socialization across groups more generally. Implications for parents, educators, and consumers are discussed.

Book Review: The dark side of relationship pursuit: From attraction to obsession and stalkingSpitzbergB. H.CupachW. R. (2014). The dark side of relationship pursuit: From attraction to obsession and stalking (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. 466 pp.

down’’ to society as a whole. Although for most readers of this journal these myths may never have held sway, two seem worthy of deeper exploration: that one can generalize about women and that individual success can shape social change. The word ‘‘American’’ in the title serves to cut off any instinct to generalize too widely. The history of changes in women’s status, rights, opportunities, work, and family obligations is deeply bound up with the cultures and histories of particular places. And yet generalizations abound in almost any social psychology text on gender that, like Feminism Unfinished, would be suitable for a broad undergraduate audience. Explanations for psychological generalizations will be grounded in theory the nature/nurture debate, social-role theory, and so on—but generalizations there will be. In an ideal world, this book would prompt dialogue between historians and psychologists across American academe in which the two communities talk deeply about which parts of gender analysis can be divorced from their historical and geographic context. Another myth worth noting is the price we Americans pay for our fascination with significant individuals. These authors demonstrate repeatedly that social changes for the better depended on collective action and on collaborations among groups with widely differing memberships. Feminism, they argue, cannot succeed as a private quest, conceived as a challenge for each individual psyche, no matter that many of us are too alone as we challenge structural, social impediments to a rich life. Their point is reminiscent of Harvard historian Laural Thatcher Ulrich’s conclusion that ‘‘Womanless history has been a Harvard specialty’’ (Ulrich, 1999, { 17), erasing from dominant culture’s consciousness the 100-year legacies of cohorts of women at Radcliffe and Harvard by means of the exaggerated veneration it accords to today’s ‘‘pioneering’’ high achievers. Feminism Unfinished is indeed ‘‘short,’’ which prompts a brief but admiring comment about its style and presentation. All three authors have distilled extraordinarily complex times into coherent, interconnected chapters with elegance and skill. The book’s style and organization will make it a useful resource in any course for generalists who should know more about how feminists, both women and men, challenged power structures with collective action. For those who incline to make feminism a central component of their learning, this book serves as a richly inclusive introduction. For all of us, it serves as a guide to the huge array of fields and arenas in which feminists can and do undertake constructive endeavors.