Alcohol-Involved Sexual Assault among Bisexual Women: Disentangling Mechanisms of Risk at Individual, Interpersonal, and Structural Levels Across the Lifespan

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The purpose of this Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01) is to help the candidate, Dr. Jessie Ford, become an independent researcher focused on identifying modifiable multi-level factors that can explain and address the high rates of alcohol-involved sexual assault within bisexual women (BW) across the lifespan in the US. Today, as many as 8-14% of women identify as bisexual. Research shows that BW are over three times more likely to have experienced alcohol-facilitated sexual assault than heterosexual women (24.4% vs. 7.6%), and that rates of hazardous drinking are higher for BW than for heterosexual women. Thus, it is imperative to study how alcohol interacts with other social forces to create risk in order to prevent the high rates of sexual assault among this growing demographic group. In order to examine this topic, the candidate requires training in each of the following areas: 1) risk and protective factors for hazardous drinking; (2) lifespan research methods for alcohol use and sexual assault; (3) conceptualizing and measuring multi-level determinants of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) alcohol use; and (4) mixed methods. Training will occur alongside a career development plan that includes specific seminars, workshops, coursework, conferences, hands-on practica, and tailored mentoring with a mentorship team comprised of experts in alcohol use, lifespan and longitudinal research methods, determinants of LGB health, minority stress, risk taking, sexual assault, mixed methods, bisexual health, and advanced statistical methods. The candidate will use this new training data to build a novel conceptual model describing BW's disproportionate risk for alcohol-involved sexual assault, with attention to the multi-level effects of individual, interpersonal, and structural factors across the lifespan. To test this model, I will utilize a multi-method design across 3 studies that draw on the methodological strengths of longitudinal cohort, multi-site cross-sectional, and mixed-methods data. These datasets include: 1) the Chicago Health and Life Experiences of Women Study (CHLEW), 21-year study of 181 BW (ages 18-84); 2) the Online College Social Life Survey (OCSLS), a multi-site study of 638 BW (ages 18-25) at 22 universities; and 3) my own primary data: The Bisexual Women, Alcohol and Sexual Health (BWASH) 2- wave survey of 800 BW in a US general population sample. Further, the candidate will conduct 30 in-depth interviews with BW recruited from the BWASH sample, integrating survey data with qualitative data to further elucidate mechanisms. This research will provide critical formative data that will be used to develop a NIAAA R01 proposal that will allow Dr. Ford to create a prospective dataset to identify multi-level etiologic pathways (all in 1 dataset) that affect alcohol use and sexual health for BW. The new skills acquired through this K01 will help the candidate achieve her career goal of becoming an independent investigator who conducts transformative, cross-disciplinary work that advances research on determinants of alcohol use and adverse sexual health outcomes.