ABSTRACT
We examined three proximal motives for sexual aggression (sexual persistence after a turn down): sexual arousal, power, and relationship. The MTurk sample consisted of 264 adults: 92 Millennial men (35%), 51 Millennial women (19%), 82 Gen X men (31%) and 39 Gen X women (15%). The motive data, measured by the Sexual Aggression Motive Assessment (SAMA), were unanalyzed data extracted from the authors' previous study of the Millennial shift, a phenomenon in which Millennial women, as compared to older generation women, showed higher levels of sexual aggression, while Millennial men, in comparison to older generation men, demonstrated lower levels of sexual aggression. For all respondents combined, the most chosen motive category was sexual arousal (95%), followed by relationship (49%), and then by power (18%) with 50% choosing two or more motive categories. Providing conceptual support for the Millennial shift, significantly more Millennial women than Gen X women chose motives of sexual arousal and power as reasons for perpetrating sexual aggression. An important finding for the relationship motive is that substantial numbers of both men and women engaged in sexual aggression because they felt that having sex would make the person like them.
ABSTRACT
Adult perpetration rates of sexual aggression (defined as: acts in which an individual uses verbal pressure, arousal techniques, coercion, alcohol or drugs, or force to have sexual contact with someone against his or her will) were compared among an MTurk sample of 341 Baby Boom-GenX men, 356 Baby Boom-GenX women, 465 Millennial men, and 309 Millennial women (Mdn age = 30). Logistic regression analyses revealed a significant generation by gender interaction effect for use of six behaviors: pressured or forced sexual outcomes (PFSOs) without sexual intercourse; PFSOs with sexual intercourse, any tactic of post-refusal sexual persistence (PRSP), and PRSP tactic sets related to arousal, emotional coercion, and intoxication. No interaction effect was found for the PRSP tactic set of physical force. Follow-up analyses revealed that for four measures (any PRSP, PRSP sets for arousal, emotional coercion, and intoxication), Baby Boom-GenX men had significantly higher rates of sexual aggression than same-generation women, but Millennial men and women had statistically similar rates. This outcome replicated a pattern termed the Millennial Shift which we detected in earlier work. We suggest that the Millennial Shift involves higher sexual aggression rates reported by Millennial women compared to older generation women, in conjunction with lower rates reported by Millennial men compared to older generation men. We speculate that the Millennial Shift reflects changes in the traditional sexual script.
