About 50% of sexual assaults involving adolescent or young adult female victims occur in the context of alcohol consumption. The authors of a recent study from the University of Michigan Institute for Research on Women and Gender and the Substance Abuse Research Center investigated this in a recent study. The full text is $ for access, but the abstract is openly accessible and a press release is available here.
ADOLESCENTS' SEXUAL INFERENCES ABOUT GIRLS WHO CONSUME ALCOHOL
Amy M. Young, Sean Esteban McCabe, and Carol J. Boyd
Psychology of Women Quarterly
Volume 31 Issue 3 Page 229-240, September 2007
doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.2007.00366.x
The purpose of this study was to document whether adolescents make inferences regarding male and female vignette characters in terms of the characters' sexuality, social skills, impairment, and aggressiveness when the characters consume alcohol. A Web-based survey of 1,691 middle and high school students (grades 6–11) from diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds was conducted. The Dating Vignette and Subjective Perception Form (George, Gournic, & McAfee, 1988) were modified for use with an adolescent sample and embedded within the Web-based survey. There were significant interaction effects between the male and female characters' alcohol consumption in terms of the respondents' perception of the female character for all of the subscales examined (i.e., sexual disinhibition, social skills, impairment, and aggressiveness). In contrast, there were no significant interactions between the characters' drinking and the respondents' perception of the male character. Collectively, these findings suggest that adolescents' perceptions of girls are based not only on the girls' own drinking behaviors, but also their male partners' drinking behaviors.
This is pretty much what one would expect, but it is good to have confirmation. People tend to not rate males as any more promiscuous, based upon level of alcohol consumption. However, they do tend to think of young women who drink as being more promiscuous.
This is explained in the text:
Leigh (1995) and others have argued that the origin of the stereotype is rooted in the notion that it is the woman’s responsibility to uphold purity and morality for society by maintaining the Madonna persona in terms of sacrifice of personal needs to attend to the needs of others. In contrast, the drunk female is considered the whore who represents the denigration of society. Moreover, by breaking from traditional notions of femininity, the drunk female’s inability to control her alcohol consumption and libidinous behavior provides a threat to existing power relationships between men or boys and women or girls, because in such conditions men no longer have exclusive control and rights over their female partner’s sexuality (Leigh, 1995). In this respect, the image of the drunken woman or girl also invokes a sense of agency, albeit agency associated with negative connotations, because her expression of free will comes at the cost of fulfilling her role of wife and mother.
The authors do point out that it is somewhat speculative to ascribe a causal relationship to rape myths, and the actual perpetration of sexual assault.
Therefore, it is imperative to explore whether the sexual inferences adolescents make about girls who drink are associated with the high rate of sexual assault among this age group, especially because the involvement of alcohol in sexual assault appears to be just as common among adolescents as adults.
Aside from the question of causality, there is another issue here that the authors explore. That is, do the stereotypes about girls who drink affect blame attribution? Their study did not address this directly, but they identify it as an area of concern for possible further research:
To establish this link empirically, future studies should include in the vignettes a dating encounter that results in the sexual assault victimization on the part of the female character. Previous studies with adult populations (e.g., Norris & Cubbins, 1992; Norris, Davis, George, Martell, & Heiman, 2002) using alcohol vignettes that end in sexual aggression suggest that sex-related expectancies about alcohol predicted the acceptability of sexual aggression as measured with cognitive judgments of assailant force and victim enjoyment. Particularly given the relevance of rape myths among adolescents, one would anticipate greater blame for the outcome placed on the female character when she is consuming alcohol than when she is not.
The issue of the attribution of blame is an important one. It is an area in which stereotypes can play a large role. The research that Young et. al. have done on this can be important in helping people to understand their stereotypes, hopefully leading to clearer thinking. This can be important especially in criminal cases, when juries are called upon to make judgments. It also is important in the context of psychotherapy with victims, their loved ones, and perhaps with perpetrators.
Comments
my 14 year old foster daughter does not believe this will happen to her with her "friends". she has been assaulted in the past, perhaps this has something to do with it. she runs away frequently and spend sher evenings drinking at skate parks, smoking dope and hanging with people she barely knows and who regularly "dice" her (leave her on her own).
she is very promiscuous with serious boundary issues and appears determined to invite as much danger as possible to prove "adults" wrong in their fears. my sister and i have shared our stories from young dayz about drinking, rhohies, other drugs, set-ups, rape and attempted suicide.
my girl is a lost soul at present who despises what she takes for granted and courts a whole lot of sorrow. maybe one day, if she makes it, she will be doing the research on a subject such as this
Posted by: charmamayne | August 29, 2007 5:00 PM
"Are Alcohol-consuming Adolescent Girls More Promiscuous?"
Some research suggests that they are:
--"Women drug users are at increased risk for unprotected sex...and multiple sex partners." --Mott, F.L., et.al., "Linkages between sexual activity and alcohol and drug use among American adolescents." FAMILY PLANNING PERSPECTIVE, 20(3) 128-136 1988.
See also: "Women under the Influence"
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University
foreword by Joseph A. Califano, Jr.
Posted by: Dirkh | August 30, 2007 12:27 PM
From talking with my son's friends on the topic (he is 16, so a bit older). They say that girls who drink are more ready to "party" than other girls, and that they feel more comfortable talking to these girls when they are drinking. Not sure if that psychology has anything to do with the article.
Posted by: Organic Chemistry Help | September 24, 2007 7:28 AM