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SEXUALLY VIOLENT PEERS STRENGTHEN THE LINK BETWEEN AGGRESSION-RELATED PERSONALITY TRAITS AND SEXUAL PERPETRATION

Abstract

Sexual violence is endemic on U.S. college campuses. On average, one out of three college women reports experiencing sexual violence during their college years. It is vital to understand what factors increase the likelihood of sexual violence perpetration, so we have potential targets for prevention programs. Two studied risk factors are aggression-related personality traits (e.g., psychoticism) and having sexually violent peers. Despite these two findings being well-supported, the extent to which these two factors interact to predict sexual violence perpetration remains unclear, which was the goal of this study. We hypothesized that the link between personality traits and perpetration would be stronger in men with sexually violent peers. Participants (N=696) were a nationally representative sample of male 4-year college or university graduates who answered questions related to personality traits, their peers’ and their own sexual behavior in college. Results suggest that 12.4% of college men engage in behaviors while in college that meet legal definitions of sexual assault. Additionally, there was a significant interaction between personality traits and sexually violent peers F(3,693) = 95.22, p<.0001, r2= .30. Specifically, aggression-related personality traits were a stronger predictor of sexual aggression among men with sexually violent peers (b=.34, p<.0001) compared to men who did not have sexually violent peers (b=.11, p<0001). These findings suggest that future research and prevention programs should consider how someone’s individual traits and peer norms interact to create an environment where sexual violence is normalized. Future studies should include prospective methods to assess how personality traits and peer attitudes and behaviors co-evolve across a lifetime and whether association with prosocial peers might reduce the link between aggression-related traits and sexual violence.

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