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Attitudes About Date Rape: Context and Consent by Hannah Mae Strom

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Attitudes About Date Rape: Context and Consent by Hannah Mae Strom Bachelor of Arts in Psychology Mathematics Philosophy Hartwick College Oneonta, New York May 2016 Master of Science in Psychology Florida Institute of Technology Melbourne, Florida December 2018 A doctoral research project submitted to the School of Psychology of Florida Institute of Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology Melbourne, Florida February 2020 We the undersigned committee hereby approve the attached doctoral research project, “Attitudes About Date Rape: Context and Consent,” by Hannah Mae Strom. ___________________________________________ Victoria Follette, Ph.D. Professor Committee Chair School of Psychology ___________________________________________ Patrick Aragon, Psy.D. Assistant Professor School of Psychology ___________________________________________ Catherine Nicholson, Ph.D., BCBA-D Assistant Professor School of Behavior Analysis ___________________________________________ Lisa Steelman, Ph.D. Professor and Dean College of Psychology and Liberal Arts Abstract Title: Attitudes About Date Rape: Context and Consent Author: Hannah Mae Strom, M.S. Advisor: Victoria Follette, Ph.D. Sexual assault, and date rape specifically, is a prevalent problem among college students. Many factors influence students’ attitudes about these situations such as the closeness of the relationship and alcohol consumed at the time of the incident. These same factors similarly influence attitudes about reporting an assault. The development of mobile proximity-based dating applications (dating apps) has added a new, and largely under-researched, factor of influence to attitudes about perceptions of sexual consent. The current study used vignettes to examine college students’ perceptions of sexual consent and attitudes about reporting in a date rape scenario. The vignettes varied to explore the influence of alcohol use and meeting with a dating app on these outcome variables. Other information was gathered, such as demographics, sexual assault history, and rape myth acceptance. These individual differences will also be investigated in statistical analysis. It was found that 28.9% of women were sexually assaulted at some point in their life, 53.8% of which were revictimized. When age brackets were separated, 22.2% of women reported they were sexually assaulted since turning 18. Men were found to be more accepting of rape myths than women; men were also more likely to perceive consent in response to the date rape vignette than women. Acceptance of rape myths was found to be positively related to perceptions of iii consent in response to the date rape vignette. Alcohol consumption in the vignette was found to significantly influence perceptions of rape in response to the vignette; rape was perceived more when Penny was drunk than when she was sober. While these results are important to consider, the numerical differences were too small to be considered clinically significant. More research is needed to fully understand the role of dating apps in the modern world, and future research is suggested to investigate video vignettes to better address the nuances of interpersonal interactions. Keywords: Sexual assault, rape, consent, alcohol, dating apps, college, vignette iv Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................ v Literature Review............................................................................................................ 1 Sexual Assault ..................................................................................................... 1 Problematic conceptualizations of sexual assault ................................... 1 Prevalence on college campuses ............................................................. 2 Sequelae of acquaintance rape ................................................................ 3 Date rape ................................................................................................. 4 Attitudes about date rape ............................................................ 5 Alcohol and sexual assault ...................................................................... 6 College attitudes about alcohol consumption precipitating sexual assault .............................................................................. 8 Sexual Consent.................................................................................................... 8 Methods of communicating sexual consent .......................................... 12 Affirmative consent .............................................................................. 13 Invalid consent ...................................................................................... 14 Rape Myth Acceptance ..................................................................................... 15 Gender ................................................................................................... 16 Evolution of rape myth acceptance ....................................................... 17 Dating Apps ...................................................................................................... 17 Characteristics of dating app users ....................................................... 19 Why do people use dating apps? ........................................................... 20 v Dating apps and sexual encounters ....................................................... 20 Dating apps and sexual assault ................................................. 22 Vignette Studies ................................................................................................ 23 Expression of consent and non-consent ................................................ 23 Attitudes about date rape ...................................................................... 24 Rationale for Current Study .............................................................................. 27 Hypotheses .................................................................................................................... 28 Methods......................................................................................................................... 29 Participants ........................................................................................................ 29 Design ............................................................................................................... 29 Materials ........................................................................................................... 29 Vignettes ............................................................................................... 29 Sexual Experience Survey – Adult ....................................................... 30 Sexual Experience Survey – Under age 18 ........................................... 30 Updated Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale .................................... 31 Procedure .......................................................................................................... 31 Statistical Analysis ............................................................................................ 32 Results ........................................................................................................................... 32 Participants ........................................................................................................ 32 Descriptive Statistics ......................................................................................... 33 SES responses ....................................................................................... 33 IRMA responses.................................................................................... 34 Correlations ....................................................................................................... 34 vi Rape myth acceptance and perceptions of consent ............................... 34 Group Differences ............................................................................................. 35 Gender difference in rape myth acceptance .......................................... 35 Effect of trauma history on perceptions of consent .............................. 36 Effect of relationship context, alcohol consumption, and gender on perceptions of consent........................................................................... 37 Effect of relationship context, alcohol consumption, and gender on perceptions of rape ................................................................................ 38 Discussion ..................................................................................................................... 39 Sexual Assault Prevalence ................................................................................ 40 Rape Myth Acceptance ..................................................................................... 40 Perceptions of Consent and Rape ..................................................................... 41 Rape myth acceptance........................................................................... 41 Gender ................................................................................................... 42 History of sexual trauma ......................................................................
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