Abstract
The current study examined the impact of item wording on self-reported sexual assault perpetration and victimization rates. The Sexual Experiences Survey (SES; Koss et al. in Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 162–170, 1987) is a self-report assessment of female sexual victimization and male sexual perpetration. Studies using the SES consistently report a marked discrepancy between victimization rates and perpetration rates. The wording of the SES items asks respondents to report whether experiences occurred in the absence of female want. It was hypothesized that modified items, which did not require an analysis of female want, would yield increased male response rates compared to the original SES, but that female rates would be equivalent across versions. Parallel male and female SES items, for coercive sexual contact and intercourse, were compared with modified items. Analyses of the data confirmed the hypothesis that modified items yielded increased reports for males in the contact and intercourse conditions. Female response rates on modified items were increased in the contact condition, but not the intercourse condition. Implications of these findings were discussed.
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The authors thank Dr. C. Veronica Smith for her helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.
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Rueff, W.T., Gross, A.M. Assessing Sexual Coercion: Survey Wording Differences and the Victimization-Perpetration Discrepancy. J Fam Viol 32, 325–331 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-016-9859-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-016-9859-2