Discrepant Responding across Measures of College Students' Sexual Victimization Experiences: Conceptual Replication...

Sexual violence victimization affects approximately 1 in 5 college women and 1 in 6 college men; however, rates of sexual victimization vary widely, in part due to measurement issues. The present study is the first to compare the Sexual Experiences Survey-Short Form Victimization (SES-SFV) to a measure of sexual victimization designed to capture gender differences, the Post-Refusal Sexual Persistence Scale-Victimization (PRSPS-V). Prior research has compared the perpetration versions of these questionnaires and found large discrepancies. College students (N = 673: 367 women, 298 men, 8 gender minority) were surveyed. The SES-SFV identified 260 cases of sexual victimization whereas the PRSPS-V identified 330 cases; this discrepancy was largest for men. While percent agreement between the two measures ranged from 79.9-92.0%, kappa estimates indicated that agreement was in the weak to moderate range. Kappa estimates tended to be poorer for men than women. These results highlight poor precision in the measurement of sexual violence victimization, even when using well-established measures. The PRSPS-V identified more cases and may be less gender biased. We discuss how differences in questionnaire structure, item structure, and operationalization of consent may account for discordance between the SES-SFV and PRSPS-V even when controlling for item content.