A laboratory examination of risky sexual behavior among female sexual trauma survivors.

Sexual violence against women is highly prevalent on college campuses. Survivors of sexual violence often engage in coping strategies such as risky sexual behavior. The present study used a behavioral task to measure sexual risk-taking following experiences of positive or negative affect and an emotion suppression experimental manipulation. Sexually active adult female undergraduates (N = 175) completed measures of sexual traumatization and affective experiences as well as an autobiographical recall task and a delay discounting task for hypothetical sexual outcomes. Half of the participants (n = 87) were asked to suppress their emotional response to the autobiographical recall task. The findings indicate that sexual traumatization had a significant effect on risky sexual decision-making, F(1, 167) = 23.27, p < .001, ηp 2 = .12, but affective condition, F(1, 167) = .57, p = .451, and emotion suppression, F(1, 167) = .69, p = .412, exhibited no significant associations with sexual risk-taking. These findings suggest other factors may underlie the association between sexual trauma and risky sexual behavior, but further research is warranted.

Reactions to Laboratory-Based Trauma Research in a Sample of Incarcerated Women.

An evidence-based approach to research ethics is critical to ethical research but little is known about how trauma survivors-especially those from vulnerable populations-respond to laboratory-based trauma research. One hundred four incarcerated women (N = 64 rape survivors) reported their traumatic life experiences, listened to and responded to an audio recording of a dating interaction that culminates in a completed rape, and then reported their responses to their participation. Compared to the control group (N = 40), rape survivors (N = 64) had more posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and these symptoms were associated with more emotional responding. Both groups showed a positive benefit-cost ratio with regard to their participation did not differ on their overall reactions to research participation. These findings suggest that laboratory-based trauma research methods are associated with consistently positive experiences, which can help inform researchers and institutional review boards about the risks and benefits of such research.