Title: Does impulsivity moderate the association between alcohol-related expectancies for sex and sexual aggression perpetration?

Abstract:

Sexual violence is a global public health epidemic that affects women across the world (Abbey & McAuslan, 2004). Sexual violence is defined as an act that involves nonconsensual sexual contact or behaviors, both physical and non-physical. In the United States, a woman is sexually assaulted every two minutes (Senn et al., 2015), making this a health crisis that must be addressed. Research studies focused on risk factors for perpetration, have found that both personal and environmental factors are associated with the perpetration of sexual aggression (Abbey & McAuslan, 2004). Alcohol is an established risk factor for sexual perpetration (Abbey, 2011). One facet of impulsivity, negative urency, has also been linked to sexual aggression (Derefinko et al., 2011). While impulsivity and alcohol both have strong relationships with sexual aggression, the literature fails to examine a potential relation between these two variables and sexual aggression. This present study aims to examine how the association between sexual aggression and alcohol-related sex expectancies, or common beliefs or expectations regarding the effects of alcohol on the sexual experience (Abbey et al., 1999), are moderated by negative impulsivity. It is hypothesized that alcohol-related sex expectancies will be positively associated with sex aggression. Further, it is hypothesized that alcohol-related sex expectancies will be associated with sexual aggression among men who reported higher, compared to lower, levels of negative urgency. Results indicated that negative urgency did not moderate the association between alcohol-related expectancies for sex and sexual aggression. A pos coc analysis indicated that interaction between sensation seeking and alcohol-related sex expectancies for women: sex drive predicted sexual aggression perpetration, whereas high levels of expectancies are positively associated with low levels of sensation seeking. Future research is needed to examine other

potential moderators in the relationship between alcohol-related expectancies for sex and sexual aggression. Researchers should also consider examining sexual sensation seeking as a predictor for sexual aggression perpetration, but not as a facet of impulsivity.

Chair: Dr. Ruschelle Leone