Self-protection in the social context: A daily-level examination of young adult women’s perceived need for and engagement in sexual assault protective behavioral strategies.

Young adult women naturalistically engage in sexual assault protective behavioral strategies (SA-PBS) in an effort to reduce their risk of sexual assault. Despite well-documented sociocontextual risks for sexual assault, it remains largely unknown whether and how social contexts influence SA-PBS use. The present study characterized relations of women's alcohol use and interpersonal contexts with SA-PBS engagement across social events, framed according to Routine Activity Theory. Young adult women from a community sample (N = 174) reported their drinking and social events across 27 daily assessments spanning one year. Multilevel latent class analyses examined variability in SA-PBS, and multinomial regression tested associations of contextual risks with SA-PBS engagement. Results supported three distinct classes of social events characterized by SA-PBS engagement: (1) No or Minimal Use of SA-PBS ("No Use," 26%), (2) No Perceived Reason or Opportunity to Use SA-PBS ("No Reason or Opportunity," 44%), and (3) Any Use of SA-PBS ("Any Use," 30%). Presence of likely offenders (odds ratio [OR] = 4.77, p = .004), absence of capable guardianship (OR = 5.91, p < .001), and greater other's substance intoxication (OR = 1.46, p = .01), as theorized by Routine Activity Theory, increased odds of membership in the "Any Use" relative to "No Use" class. Women's alcohol consumption was not associated with class membership. Women's perceptions of risk in the social environment relate to their likelihood of engaging in SA-PBS. Findings represent an important step toward understanding the social context's role in sexual assault risk and protection.