The Impact of Stress on Alcohol-Related Sexual Assault among College Students: A Mixed-Methodological Study

The objective of the proposed project is to examine alcohol-related sexual assault in college students to determine (1) whether alcohol use temporally precedes and increases the risk for sexual assault perpetration and victimization, (2) whether sexual assault victimization temporally precedes and increases the risk for alcohol use, (3) whether daily (e.g., acute stress; social support) and distal (e.g., trait perceived stress; emotion regulation) stress and protective factors moderate the alcohol-sexual assault links, and (4) whether findings vary for college students with different demographic factors (i.e., biological sex; year in school; age). Sexual assault encompasses any forced sexual act, including forced touching or kissing and verbally/physically coerced intercourse, including vaginal, anal, or oral penetration. Rates of sexual assault perpetration and victimization are higher among college students with certain demographic characteristics (e.g., females; freshmen). The proposed project will investigate the temporal relationships between alcohol use and sexual assault in 352 heavy drinking college students. Unfortunately, there is minimal research on whether stress (e.g., acute stress) and protective factors (e.g., social support, emotion regulation) moderate the temporal relationships between alcohol use and sexual assault among college student populations. Moreover, no research has examined how holding multiple demographic factors (i.e., biological sex; year in school) intersect to impact the associations between alcohol, stress, and sexual assault among college students. Participants will complete a baseline assessment followed by brief daily surveys each day for 60 consecutive days. The daily assessments will allow for accurate reporting on the temporal relationship between alcohol, stress, and sexual assault. A subsample (n = ~75) of participants who experience sexual assault during the daily diary period will complete a follow-up interview to further examine the impact of demographic factors on alcohol, stress, and SA associations. An integrated theoretical framework, which considers theoretical models of alcohol-related sexual assault (i.e., alcohol myopia) and stress, is utilized to guide this study. This project has the potential to provide crucial information that can be used to inform the development of more effective sexual assault prevention and intervention programs.