Version Date: Sep 11, 2015 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Jacquelyn W. White, University of North Carolina-Greensboro;
University of North Carolina-Greensboro;
John A. Humphrey, University of North Carolina-Greensboro
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03212.v1
Version V1
The purpose of this study was to investigate longitudinally the developmental antecedents of physical and sexual violence against young women, using a theoretically based multicausal model that included characteristics related to the victim, the perpetrator, and the environment. The researchers used a classic longitudinal design, replicated over two cohorts (those born in 1972 and 1973), each assessed first when 18 years old, and again when 19, 20, 21, and 22 years old. The first survey (Part 1, Female Data) collected information on the respondent's experiences of sexual assault from age 14 to the present (age 18). Other questions focused on the kind of person the respondent thought she was, how much of an influence religion had on the way she chose to spend each day, her dating behavior during high school, the number of times the respondent had used behavior such as discussing issues relatively calmly, arguing, sulking, stomping out of the room, or threatening to hit, with a romantic partner during high school, and how frequently romantic partners used these types of behavior with the respondent. Other items elicited information on the number of women the respondent knew who had been sexually victimized, whether men forced them to engage in sexual activities, the nature of the respondent's sexual experience from the time she was 14 to the present, the respondent's age when each experience occurred, if the respondent or the other person was using drugs or alcohol when it happened, if the respondent was injured, and whom the respondent told about the experience. Information was collected on sexual abuse prior to the age of 14 as well. The respondent was also asked to describe how often her parents or stepparents had administered physical blows (i.e., hitting, kicking, throwing someone down), whether someone had fondled her in a sexual way, whether a male had attempted intercourse with the respondent, the relationship between the respondent and the perpetrator, the respondent's age when the experience occurred, who the other person was, who initiated the date or paid for the food, drinks, or tickets, whether the respondent or the other person was using drugs or alcohol, the respondent's opinions about men and women in America (i.e., if the respondent agreed or disagreed that chivalrous gestures toward women on the part of men should be encouraged), whether the respondent had engaged in sexual intercourse when she did not want to because a male threatened or used some degree of physical force (twisting her arm, holding her down, etc.), and the respondent's drug and alcohol use. The subsequent surveys contained measures of sexual assault during each year of college (i.e., since the previous survey). Questions asked in subsequent surveys were similar to those in the first survey, and the responses are all included in Part 1. Questions posed to males (Part 2, Male Data) included the number of women the respondent had sexual intercourse with, how often the respondent heard talk that speculated how a particular woman would be in bed, reasons the respondent engaged in sexual activity, number of times the respondent engaged in sexual intercourse when a woman didn't want to, and questions similar to those in Part 1 with the respondent as the perpetrator. Demographic information in Part 1 and Part 2 describes the female or the male respondent's education, race, religious preference, sexual orientation, and marital or relationship status.
Export Citation:
The purpose of this study was to investigate longitudinally the developmental antecedents of physical and sexual violence against young women, using a theoretically based multicausal model that included characteristics related to the victim, the perpetrator, and the environment. The research goals of the study focused on physical violence among acquaintances, paralleling the work that had already been done on experiences with sexual coercion. The researchers were also interested in the co-occurrence of sexual and physical assault. The study fills a gap in the knowledge about violence against women by addressing the relationship between experiences of sexual and physical violence from the perspectives of victim and perpetrator. Specific goals were: (1) to explore whether and how the characteristics of the agent (perpetrator), the host (victim), and the environment (situational/contextual effects) individually and in combination affect the risk of physical victimization or its perpetration during the developmental stages of adolescence and young adulthood, and (2) to examine how the three types of factors evolve from one developmental stage to the next to predict (a) the onset of victimization or perpetration or (b) the occurrence of revictimization or reperpetration.
Data were analyzed from a National Institute of Health-funded five-year longitudinal study (1990-1995) of victimization and perpetration among college students demographically representative of undergraduate women and men in state-supported universities in the United States. The researchers used a classic longitudinal design, replicated over two cohorts (those born in 1972 and 1973), each assessed first when 18 years old, and again when 19, 20, 21, and 22 years old. The researchers worked with the university administration to gain permission to survey students in groups during the first day of student orientation, and trained student orientation leaders to administer the survey, thus making participation in the study an integral part of the student orientation activities. Students who did not attend orientation, which was not required, were contacted by phone. Before the initial survey was administered, its purpose and methods were explained and signed consent was obtained. Students also completed contact sheets for the purpose of follow-up. To ensure confidentiality and still permit the matching of surveys across time, each survey and corresponding contact sheet was assigned a randomly determined code number. Only code numbers appeared on surveys and answer sheets. Lists of codes and corresponding names were kept in a locked safe to protect the identity of participants, and access was limited to the co-investigators and the data manager. To further ensure confidentiality of the data, and to bolster students' confidence in their commitment to protecting confidentiality, the researchers obtained a federal Certificate of Confidentiality. Toward the end of each spring semester, students were contacted and asked to complete a follow-up survey during one of several sessions held at various locations around campus. Postcards were sent to remind students of the follow-up survey and to announce times and locations for the sessions. These sessions were conducted by trained undergraduate psychology majors and graduate students. Students who did not attend one of these sessions were contacted by telephone and invited to participate. They were given the option of attending a session being held on campus, or of receiving the survey via mail. This was particularly useful for students who had withdrawn from the university or who were residing out of town. All students who participated in the follow-ups received $15 each time they participated. Students who had withdrawn from the university were also resurveyed.
Convenience sampling.
Undergraduate women and men in a state-supported university in the United States.
NIH-funded five-year longitudinal study of victimization and perpetration among college students
The first survey (Part 1, Female Data) collected information on the respondent's experiences of sexual assault from age 14 to the present (age 18). Other questions focused on the kind of person the respondent thought she was, how much of an influence religion had on the way she chose to spend each day, her dating behavior during high school, the number of times the respondent had used behavior such as discussing issues relatively calmly, arguing, sulking, stomping out of the room or threatening to hit, with a romantic partner during high school, and how frequently romantic partners used these types of behavior with the respondent. Other items elicited information on the number of women the respondent knew who had been sexually victimized, whether men forced them to engage in sexual activities, the nature of the respondent's sexual experience from the time she was 14 to the present, the respondent's age when each experience occurred, if the respondent or the other person was using drugs or alcohol when it happened, if the respondent was injured, and whom the respondent told about the experience. Information was collected on sexual abuse prior to the age of 14 as well. The respondent was also asked to describe how often her parents or stepparents had administered physical blows (i.e., hitting, kicking, throwing someone down), whether someone had fondled her in a sexual way, whether a male had attempted intercourse with the respondent, the relationship between the respondent and the perpetrator, the respondent's age when the experience occurred, who the other person was, who initiated the date or paid for the food, drinks, or tickets, whether the respondent or the other person was using drugs or alcohol, the respondent's opinions about men and women in America (i.e., if the respondent agreed or disagreed that chivalrous gestures toward women on the part of men should be encouraged), whether the respondent had engaged in sexual intercourse when she did not want to because a male threatened or used some degree of physical force (twisting her arm, holding her down, etc.), and the respondent's drug and alcohol use. The subsequent surveys contained measures of sexual assault during each year of college (i.e., since the previous survey). Questions asked in subsequent surveys were similar to those in the first survey, and the responses are all included in Part 1. Questions posed to males (Part 2, Male Data) included the number of women the respondent had sexual intercourse with, how often the respondent heard talk that speculated how a particular woman would be in bed, reasons the respondent engaged in sexual activity, number of times the respondent engaged in sexual intercourse when a woman didn't want to, and questions similar to those in Part 1 with the respondent as the perpetrator. Demographic information in Part 1 and Part 2 describes the female or the male respondent's education, race, religious preference, sexual orientation, and marital or relationship status.
Part 1: Approximately 83 percent of the 1990 class and 84 percent of the 1991 class provided usable surveys. Successive retention rates for each follow-up for the 1990 sample were 88.2 percent, 83.2 percent, 83.6 percent, and 78.1 percent. A total of 47.9 percent of the original sample participated in the entire project. For the 1991 sample, successive retention rates were 90.2 percent, 83.9 percent, 77.9 percent, and 77.1 percent. Of the original sample, 45.4 percent of respondents were retained throughout the entire project. Part 2: Of the total number of incoming men of 1990, 65 percent completed the first survey. Yearly retention averaged 71 percent. Twenty-two percent of the original sample completed all five phases of the study.
Conflict Tactics Scale, and several Likert-type scales were used.
Hide2002-05-29
2015-09-11 Codebook for Male Data was updated to address some labeling issues.
2006-03-30 File UG3212.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.
2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to reflect these additions.
2002-05-29 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.
This dataset is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), the criminal justice archive within ICPSR. NACJD is primarily sponsored by three agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice: the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
