A Comparative Account of Institutional Approaches to Addressing Campus-Based Sexual Violence in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Sexual violence is prevalent on university campuses globally. In this article, we report a qualitative insider research study examining practices for addressing sexual violence at four universities across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. We collected, analysed, and synthesised descriptive information about the practices at each institution. We found unique institutional approaches that nonetheless share some commonalities, yieldingseveral themes that are central to practice. In reflecting on our findings, we conclude with an outline of critical considerations and a call to action for future efforts to address campus-based sexual violence, particularly as this field remains underdeveloped across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Seeking of help and support after experiencing sexual harm: considerations for cisgender women, cisgender men and gender-diverse people.

AIMS: This study examines the help-seeking behaviours of cisgender women, cisgender men and gender-diverse university students who have experienced sexual harm. METHODS: We examine an existing data set from a cross-sectional survey of experiences of sexual harm among university students. Bivariate analyses were used to analyse the type of sexual harm experienced and subsequent help-seeking behaviours. RESULTS: Although more cisgender women reported experiencing sexual harm, data from this survey demonstrates cisgender men and gender-diverse persons also report experiencing sexual harm. Of those who reported having experienced sexual harm, only a small proportion (27%) reported having told someone about their experience. People who told, most often told family or friends. Additionally, a small proportion of cisgender women told specialised sexual violence services or other services. Cisgender men were less likely to tell someone about their experience compared to cisgender women. CONCLUSIONS: Sexual harm affects students of all genders on campus but there may be differential help-seeking behaviours depending on gender. Cisgender men and gender-diverse persons may be less likely to reach out to formal service providers. Support services need to consider how to accommodate the support needs of all survivors, including cisgender men and gender-diverse persons.

Sexual assault experiences of university students and disclosure to health professionals and others.

AIMS: The aim of this study was to investigate the number and correlates of sexual assault among students at a campus-based university in Aotearoa New Zealand and to determine how often students disclose such experiences to health professionals, other services and family/friends. METHODS: An online survey based on the Administrator-Researcher Campus Climate Consortium tool was emailed to all students at the main campus of a large university in Aotearoa/New Zealand. It was completed by 1,540 students (8.1% of those emailed) of any gender in July-August 2019. RESULTS: During their time at university to-date, 28% of the sample had experienced at least one form of sexual assault with 14.9% reporting experiences that meet a definition of rape. Sixty-six percent of victims in the sample and 53% of the reported perpetrators had been using alcohol at the time of the assault. Only 8% of those reporting sexual assault in the sample disclosed the assault to a health professional. CONCLUSIONS: Considering the low number of university students disclosing sexual assaults to health professionals or support services, the results of this survey suggest more work is needed to facilitate greater disclosures to health professionals enabling victims to access the services they need regardless of alcohol use.

Accounting for Men's Refusal of Heterosex: A Story-Completion Study With Young Adults.

In the present study we bring together theory regarding the construction of heterosexuality and masculinities to understand the shifting and changing terrain of heterosexual sex (heterosex). We use inductive qualitative content analysis of story completion data to discover the different ways that heterosex is constructed by the male and female respondents in scenarios where women initiate sex and men, at first, refuse. The stories represented a spectrum of responses that reify and subvert dominant understandings of heterosex. Five major themes were generated from the current data (1) men should initiate sex, (2) he wants to take it slowly, (3) it is natural for men to want sex, (4) it is men's job to look after women, and (5) coercion. We discuss in detail the dominant narratives described by women and men and how they may be shifting. The study thus provides a rich, experience-based representation of heterosexual sexual activity and suggests subtle shifts in how masculinity is managed within heterosexual relationships.

Navigating ambivalence: how heterosexual young adults make sense of desire differences.

The miscommunication hypothesis is the assumption that many incidents of acquaintance rape and coercive sex follow from miscommunication between men and women. This hypothesis is entrenched in popular, academic, and judicial understandings of sexual relationships. Recently some evidence has suggested that there is little miscommunication between sexual partners and that the hypothesis does not explain acquaintance rape or other forms of sexual violence. The present study used qualitative methodology in which men and women were asked to imagine themselves in a particular heterosexual dating situation and write what they think happened between the beginning (when sex was refused by one partner) and the end (when sex happened). Thematic analysis of the data found no evidence for miscommunication between partners under conditions of differences in desire. Instead, ambivalence about sexual activity was commonly described by women and men and was most often resolved to both parties' satisfaction. Coercion by men was present in a minority of narratives under conditions of clear understanding of women's refusals. The study thus provides a rich, experience-based representation of heterosexual sexual activity, with considerable potential for the development of effective education campaigns.

Sexual miscommunication? Untangling assumptions about sexual communication between casual sex partners.

Miscommunication theory suggests that many incidents of heterosexual sexual violence or coercion are the result of a miscommunication between men and women. Two most commonly cited forms of miscommunication include men overestimating women's interest in sex and women giving token resistance to sex. The current study is a thematic analysis of the ways that young women and men talked about their casual sex experiences with particular attention to the presence or absence of miscommunication in their descriptions. Both women and men used a combination of three themes to describe their communication with their casual partners: (1) tacit knowing, (2) refusing sex and (3) active participation. Women and men described similar communication mechanisms and reported communicating and understanding their partners' communication whether this involved acceptance or rejection of a sexual invitation. Both men and women demonstrated literacy in the same communicative tools, thus suggesting the absence of miscommunication.

Structural equation model testing and the quality of natural killer cell activity measurements.

BACKGROUND: Browne et al. [Browne, MacCallum, Kim, Andersen, Glaser: When fit indices and residuals are incompatible. Psychol Methods 2002] employed a structural equation model of measurements of target cell lysing by natural killer cells as an example purportedly demonstrating that small but statistically significant ill model fit can be dismissed as "negligible from a practical point of view". METHODS: Reanalysis of the natural killer cell data reveals that the supposedly negligible ill fit obscured important, systematic, and substantial causal misspecifications. RESULTS: A clean-fitting structural equation model indicates that measurements employing higher natural-killer-cell to target-cell ratios are more strongly influenced by a progressively intrusive factor, whether or not the natural killer cell activity is activated by recombinant interferon gamma (rIFN gamma). The progressive influence may reflect independent rate limiting steps in cell recognition and attachment, spatial competition for cell attachment points, or the simultaneous lysings of single target cells by multiple natural killer cells. CONCLUSIONS: If the progressively influential factor is ultimately identified as a mere procedural impediment, the substantive conclusion will be that measurements of natural killer cell activity made at lower effector to target ratios are more valid. Alternatively, if the individual variations in the progressively influential factor are modifiable, this may presage a new therapeutic route to enhancing natural killer cell activity. The methodological conclusion is that, when using structural equation models, researchers should attend to significant model ill fit even if the degree of covariance ill fit is small, because small covariance residuals do not imply that the underlying model misspecifications are correspondingly small or inconsequential.

Sexual consent behaviors in same-sex relationships.

Consent is a key issue in defining sexual coercion yet few researchers have analyzed sexual consent attitudes and behaviors and, to date, there has been no published research examining sexual consent within same-sex relationships. The main objective of this study was to identify which behaviors people use to ask for and to indicate sexual consent to their same-sex partner(s). A Same-Sex Sexual Consent Scale was developed to measure both initiating and responding consent behaviors in same-sex relationships. Data were collected using an on-line survey from 257 participants (127 men, 130 women). The participants reported using nonverbal behaviors significantly more frequently than verbal behaviors to indicate consent. Exploratory factor analysis for the Initiating and Responding subscales resulted in four factors for each subscale. The four factors for the Initiating Subscale were nonverbal behaviors involving touch, no resistance behaviors, verbal behaviors, and nonverbal behaviors without touch. The factors for the Responding Subscale were no resistance behaviors, verbal behaviors, nonverbal behaviors, and undressing behaviors. There were no significant differences in the initiating behaviors used by men who have sex with men (MSM) and women who have sex with women (WSW); however, when responding to initiating behavior, MSM reported using significantly more nonverbal signals than did WSW. The scale that was developed in this study should be useful for other researchers who wish to study the topic of sexual consent.

Identifying signals of suffering by linking verbal and facial cues.

Here, the authors describe microanalytically the two main behavioral states in suffering (enduring and emotional suffering) so that in subsequent research, appropriate comforting responses to ease and relieve suffering can be identified for each behavioral state. Their objectives were to describe the facial expressions of enduring and emotional suffering, and to link them with verbal narrative and thus develop a microanalytic description of each behavioral state. Using Ekman's modified EMFACS, they videotaped interviews with 19 participants and coded co-occurring verbal text and expressions. They also documented differences between each behavioral state and the transitions from enduring to emotional suffering. Enduring and emotional suffering are distinct and identifiable behaviors. These formerly implicit behavioral cues can be used in clinical assessment and research.