Factors affecting women's response choices to dating and social situations

This study evaluated the effects of a sexual victimization history, trait disinhibition, alcohol use history, number of lifetime sexual partners, and the contextual features of dating and social events (i.e., sexual activity and alcohol use) on women's response choices to a set of vignettes describing diverse social situations. A total of 170 undergraduate women chose one of six responses to each situation that varied in their degree of response refusal. Averaged across the situations, more severely victimized women and women reporting higher disinhibition chose responses lower in refusal than nonvictimized women and women reporting lower disinhibition. Past victimization, disinhibition, and number of sexual partners also moderated the influence of the situations' contextual features on women's response refusal. Specifically, as the presence of sexual activity increased in the situations, the response refusal of more severely victimized women increased less than nonvictimized women. In addition, as the presence of alcohol increased in the situations, the response refusal of women reporting higher disinhibition and a greater number of sexual partners decreased more than women reporting lower disinhibition and a fewer number of sexual partners.