This study assessed early adolescents' attitudes and perceptions regarding nonconsensual sexual activity. A total of 371 surveys (94% return rate) was completed. More than one-third of respondents (35%) reported they had engaged in sexual intercourse; 17% reported having been sexually coerced by a teen-ager; 19% reported feeling pressure from their friends to have intercourse; 7% reported having been sexually coerced by an adult; and 6% reported having sexually coerced someone else. Students also demonstrated lack of knowledge regarding nonconsensual sexual behaviors. Analysis of variance tests determined if knowledge (KN), attitudes (AT), behavioral intentions (BI), and locus of control (LC) changed across specific background and demographic variables. One background variable (having been sexually coerced by a teen-ager) was associated with high risk orientation (lower scores) on all four subscales. Lower scores also were associated with being male (KN, AT, BI), having sexually coerced someone else (KN, AT, BI), having been sexually coerced by an adult (AT, BI), and having engaged in sexual intercourse (AT, BI).
PIP: Nonconsensual sexual activity is gaining recognition as a major health problem in US high schools and colleges. A questionnaire administered in 1996 to 371 7th-8th graders (mean age, 13.4 years) at three junior high schools in Ohio assessed the extent of the sexual harassment problem among younger students. Although 35% of respondents reported they had had sexual intercourse, students perceived that 55% of their peers were sexually active. 65% (predominantly male students) admitted they had used verbal or behavioral pressure to coerce someone to do something sexual, 7% reported having been forced against their will to engage in sexual activity with an adult, 17% had been coerced into doing something sexual with a teenager, and 19% felt pressure from friends to have intercourse. Less than 6% of the variance in the dependent variables was associated with a possible interaction between race and socioeconomic status. Students had better knowledge of sexual harassment and date rape than they did of incest and sexual abuse. 14% of males and 6.5% of females believed that a girl who reports a boy for sexual harassment "cannot take a joke." Having been sexually coerced as a teenager was associated with lower scores on the knowledge, attitudes, behavioral intentions, and locus of control subscales. Lower scores on these subscales were also associated with male gender, having sexually coerced someone else, having been sexually coerced by an adult, and having engaged in sexual intercourse. Traditional health education curricula may be inadequate in terms of helping young students to recognize and respond to inappropriate sexual advances.