Predicting Men's Sexual Coercion and Aggression from Attitudes, Dating History, and Sexual Response

Abstract

The relationships of rape-supportive attitudes and beliefs, sexual response, and dating history to four types of sexual experiences in university men (consenting intercourse, use of physical force, use of verbal coercion, and perceived uncontrollable arousal) were examined. In the prediction of sexual experiences from the attitudinal and sexual response variables, canonical correlation analysis found two significant dimensions. On the first dimension, all four types of sexual experiences were associated with traditional and rape-supportive attitudes. On the second dimension, use of physical force was associated with (high) acceptance of interpersonal violence, (high) arousability, and erotophobia. In the analysis of dating history variables, a more active dating history was associated with consenting intercourse, use of verbal coercion, and not having used physical force. The attitudinal variable set and dating history variable set each uniquely predicted sexual experiences. These results suggest that the traditional sexual script legitimizes the use of verbal coercion but not the use of physical force. Rather, physical force maybe particularly likely to be used by men who experience themselves as highly arousable and who are erotophobic, accepting of interpersonal violence, and less active daters.

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