College Women: The Alcohol and Victimization Link

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Victimization of young, college women is a problem with potentially devastating consequences. Approximately 2 million women are new freshmen each year (US Dept. of Ed., 2001). In a recent report, Hingson et al. (2002) estimate that 600,000 (13.3%) college students were assaulted because of drinking by other students over a 1-year period. Humphrey and White (2000) found that 6.4% of women reported being raped during their first year in school. Research findings indicate that 50% of sexual assaults in college involve alcohol (Abbey, 2002). Based on these figures, 3.2% or 64,000 freshmen women experience an alcohol-related rape annually. Clearly, victimization (nonsexual and sexual) is a significant alcohol-related problem on college campuses. The research proposed in this R01 application focuses on the longitudinal relationship between alcohol consumption and victimization among college women. The PRIMARY OBJECTIVES of the proposed investigation are to 1) describe the rates of alcohol consumption and alcohol-related victimization, across four years of college attendance, 2) assess the temporal relationship between alcohol consumption and alcohol-related victimization (sexual and nonsexual,verbal and physical), 3) assess risk factors for experiencing victimization during college, and 4) assess primary (e.g., injury, psychological trauma) and secondary (e.g., academic, psychological) consequences of alcohol-related victimization. Two longitudinal research components will be used to achieve these research objectives. Component 1 involves a brief telephone survey, administered annually during the Fall semester, of the drinking patterns, victimization and other alcohol-related problems that occur in a cohort of women entering college for the first time during the Fall semester of 2004. Component 2 of the research involves an 8-week prospective assessment of drinking patterns and victimization experiences administered annually during the Spring semester, to a sub-sample of women randomly selected during Year I from Component 1 participants. Component 2 will use state-of-the-art technology (Interactive Voice Response) to collect daily data on alcohol consumption and any victimization that occurs. Event-based measures will be used to Provide detailed data on victimization experiences. This research is innovative in the use of long- and short-term measures, within a longitudinal design, to assess alcohol-related victimization of college women.