News
Study to examine drinking, sexual
aggression from male perspective
Most of what we know about alcohol and sexual aggression is based on information obtained from female victims.
A new UB research study will focus on drinking and sexually aggressive behavior from the male perspective.
“Rates of sexual victimization and perpetration among college students are disturbingly high nationwide,” according to lead investigator Maria Testa, senior research scientist at UB’s Research Institute on Addictions (RIA).
“Furthermore, men’s alcohol consumption and heavy-drinking patterns are present in a large proportion of incidents of sexual victimization and aggression among young college students. In order to learn more about what is happening and why, we will talk to young college men.”
The study is supported by a $2 million award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
More than 1,800 male college freshmen will be recruited to participate across the first five semesters of their college experience. To address the gap in knowledge about alcohol-drinking perpetrators, two innovative methods will be employed.
In the first, a web-based survey method will examine whether heavy drinking actually predicts sexual aggression. In the second, interactive voice response (IVR) technology will be used to examine whether sexually aggressive behavior occurs during or immediately after drinking. This component will include a subsample of approximately 300 young men and use IVR to compile daily reports on drinking and sexual behavior over eight weeks.
Testa suspects that the relationship between alcohol use and sexual aggression may be influenced by sex-related alcohol expectancies, hostile masculinity, impersonal sexuality and other beliefs and behaviors. She will be examining these variables for their current and future impact.
Testa is an expert on the association between alcohol and physical and sexual aggression, and, in particular, on how women’s alcohol use increases their vulnerability to sexual assault. A member of RIA since 1989, she earned her doctorate in social psychology from UB.
Collaborating on this study are Kenneth E. Leonard, RIA senior research scientist, research professor and vice chair for research in the UB Department of Psychiatry, and research professor in the Department of Psychology; and Kathleen A. Parks, RIA senior research scientist.
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