Online Program

334883
Problem drinking trajectories of female sexual assault survivors, sexual orientation and race


Monday, November 2, 2015

Rannveig Sigurvinsdottir, MA Community Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL
Sarah Ullman, PhD Psychology, Department of Criminology, Law and Justice, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL
In this study, we examined problem drinking among female sexual assault survivors to analyze differences by sexual orientation and race. Sexual minorities experience greater negative impact following sexual assault than heterosexuals, such as elevated problem drinking. This effect may be even stronger among bisexual than homosexual survivors. Additionally, negative impact on sexual assault may be especially pronounced for Black sexual minorities. A sample of bisexual and heterosexual community women (N = 905) completed three mail surveys over a three year period about sexual victimization, two measures of problem drinking (TWEAK, MAST), race and sexual minority status. We examined the longitudinal data with a hierarchical linear modeling approach. Results showed that overall, problem drinking decreased over the data collection period. For both problem drinking measures, a significant interaction between race and sexual orientation emerged. In this way, sexual orientation differences in problem drinking were greater among Black women than non-Black women. For the TWEAK measure, there was also a significant interaction between time and sexual orientation such that bisexual women’s problem drinking decreased faster over time than that of heterosexual women. These results suggest that sexual minority status and race play a role in recovery and should be considered in treatment protocols. Furthermore, health policy must be sensitive to disparities by race and sexual orientation in the recovery process of sexual assault survivors.

Learning Areas:

Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Analyze differences in recovery from sexual assault by sexual orientation and race Describe the intersection problem drinking differences between bisexual and heterosexual women, as well as between Black and non-Black women

Keyword(s): Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT), Sexual Assault

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a doctoral student researching recovery from sexual assault and have several papers published on the topic. I work as a research assistant on the study where the data that I am presenting were collected.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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