The Relationship between Race Related Stress and Sexual Assault

Background: There is a dearth of research exploring the unique experiences of sexual assault of students with marginalized racial identities. We do not have accurate prevalence rates for students of color, or know how the effects of experiencing racism affect the perpetration of sexual assault. Race Related Stress is stress, mental and biophysical, that is the result of institutional and interpersonal racism. Previous research has demonstrated a link between the racism and relationship violence. For example, Black men experience oppression outside the home and perpetrate violence in the home; men are seeking the power and control they don’t have in society in the home. The current study sought to further understand the relationship between race related stress and perpetrating sexual assault; and the norms that contribute to perpetration.

Methods: This research is an analysis of data from a mixed-methods study that sought to understand the unique experiences of sexual assault among students with marginalized identities. The qualitative component of this study was a virtual community chat to further understand participants’ experiences and perspectives on dating norms, defining gender-based violence, and their understanding of healthy relationships and consent. All participants participated in an online survey that assessed Dating Norms, Rape Myth Acceptance. Process Consent, Hostile Sexism, Benevolent Sexism, Perpetrating sexual assault, and Racial Related Stress prior to participating in the virtual chat. Students were also asked to choose the reasons they pursued sex their partner did not want, with response options like, “you really want to have sex,” or, “feel pressure to have sex.” The following results focus on the survey data. As a note, the higher the score on the scales, the more problematic the norms.

Results: Correlation analysis demonstrated a significant relationship between willingness to pursue unwanted sex and rape myth acceptance (r=-.215), process consent (how someone gives and gets consent; r=.185), hostile sexism (sexism that is negative in tone and disparages women who challenge traditional gender roles and ideologies; r=-.207), and race-related stress (r=.158). As race related stress increases, rape myth acceptance, process consent and hostile sexism worsen. However, race related stress reduced the risk of pursuing unwanted sex. A model including process consent, hostile sexism, rape myth acceptance, and race-related stress approached significance (p=.06); with race related stress being the only significant individual predictor (p=.04).

Discussion: The results of this study demonstrate the power of racism’s impact on behaviors, including sexual assault. Higher levels of rape myth acceptance, higher likelihood of not practicing consent, and higher likelihood of being sexist, should increase the risk of pursuing unwanted sex. However, racism has a more powerful influence on behavior than those factors. It is not surprising that race related stress is the most salient factor that influences people’s behavior. In this case, potentially the history of false accusations of rape (and other crimes) against people of color, and fear of the criminal justice system, tempers the effect of norms that previous research has demonstrated increase the risk of sexual assault.