This study compared two explanatory models for sexual coercion and sexual victimization in the context of dating, using the entire cohort of 11th-grade students (ages 16-17) in three high schools in Israel.
Most of the variables based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) were not found to be significantly related to either being a victim or perpetrator of sexual coercion. The TPB model proposes that coercive sexual behavior stems from intentional behavior conditioned by attitudes, perceptions of social norms, and perceived control over the situation in which sexual coercion occurs. There was evidence, however, for the involvement-overlap model (IO), which presupposes an overlap between victim and perpetrator behaviors. This overlap is explained either through situational determinants of behavior or by experiential learning through earlier exposure to violence as a victim or witness. The study found that dating sexual coercion was an interactional process between perpetrator and victim, based on socially constructed and personally interpreted scripts composed of attitudes and behavioral norms that condone or accept sexual coercion/aggression. Being a perpetrator significantly increased the likelihood of subsequently being victimized, and vice versa, for both boys and girls. These effects overshadowed the effects of the cognitive (TPB) variables. Data were collected as part of an evaluation study of a workshop intervention that focused on dating violence and sexual coercion presented in three high schools in northern Israel. The current study was based on data collected at the preintervention stage. For the current study, usable questionnaires were received from 167 boys out of 352 boys in the entire sample and 179 girls out of 370 girls in the entire sample. The questionnaire obtained data on sociodemographic variables and variables related to the TPB and IO variables. 4 tables and 50 references