Prevalence of sexual coercion and associated social and psychological factors in Spanish university students [Póster]

Abstract

Background: Previous studies estimating that approximately 16.9% of U.S. college students haveexperienced forced sex, often involving inappropriate touching. While prior research has examineddemographic factors, sex education, and alcohol use, associations with psychological and socialvariables remain underexplored. Objectives: This study aimed to: i) Determine the prevalence ofsexual coercion among Spanish university students, and ii) Assess its associations withpsychological, social, and sociodemographic variables. Methods: This study is part of the HealthBehavior in University (HBU) research project, employing a cross-sectional survey design withstratified random cluster sampling. The final sample included 752 students (75.20% female, 24.54%male, 0.27% non-binary), with a mean age of 20.72 years (SD = 2.15). Prevalence was estimatedusing descriptive statistics, and a multivariate backward-weighted logistic regression model identifiedkey associated variables. Results: The prevalence of sexual coercion was 26.6%. The final logisticregression model retained variables including age, gender, relationship status, sexual orientation,number of lifetime sexual partners, smoking status, perceived health, psychological distress, and peer support. Factors such as life satisfaction, self-esteem, social activities (e.g., attending parties,going out with friends), employment, and living with a partner were excluded after five iterations. Themodel demonstrated good predictive performance (AUC = 0.72), explaining 25.15% of the varianceand correctly classifying 61.04% of cases (68.45% balanced accuracy, 84% sensitivity, and 52.9%specificity). Lower odds were associated with older age, being in a relationship, and higher peersupport. Conversely, higher odds were linked to being female, having more sexual partners,identifying as bisexual, smoking, poor self-perceived health, and elevated psychological distress.Conclusions: Sexual coercion is associated with poorer mental health, lower peer support, andnegative self-perceived health but not with participation in social activities. These findings emphasizethe need for targeted interventions focusing on mental health support, social well-being, and creatingsafer university environments.