Tara Hedayati, Shalet S. Punnoose, Sabrin Ghuman, Kayleigh N. Watters, & Mikael Rubin
October 14, 2025
Sexual assault remains a significant issue on college campuses, with 20-25% of college women and 6-8% of men reporting an experience of sexual assault during their college years (Watters & Yalch, 2023). Common prevention approaches are education and bystander programs; however, recent research demonstrates the importance of understanding individual level risk factors that may increase vulnerability. More specifically, histories of childhood trauma and motivations to use alcohol may play a critical role. A study of 624 college students recently published in Journal of Traumatic Stress found that risky alcohol consumption, along with certain types of childhood trauma and drinking motives, strongly predicted both the severity and frequency of sexual assault during college. These findings can be used to improve and expand trauma informed prevention and intervention efforts.
Trauma History and Alcohol Use
Childhood trauma is widely recognized as a significant risk factor for experiencing sexual assault later in life, including during college. Specifically, childhood sexual abuse is associated with greater risk of revictimization (Briere & Elliott, 2003). Early abuse and neglect may interfere with the development of key psychological resources such as self-esteem, trust, and interpersonal boundaries (Kaysen et al., 2007). These developmental disruptions can carry forward into adolescence and adulthood, affecting students’ ability to recognize unsafe situations, assert themselves in social settings, or avoid harmful relationships. Moreover, individuals with trauma histories often face heightened emotional distress and may turn to substances such as alcohol to cope with intrusive memories, anxiety, or loneliness (Widom et al., 1995).
Our recent study published in Journal of Traumatic Stress identified a significant association between engaging in risky alcohol use and experiencing sexual assault during college. This finding is consistent with previous literature which indicates that alcohol impairs judgment, increases social vulnerability, and may embolden perpetrators (Abbey, 2002; Abbey et al., 2004; Tuliao & McChargue, 2014). It is important to highlight that no amount of alcohol makes a survivor responsible for being assaulted; responsibility lies with the perpetrator.
Three Analytic Approaches to Understanding Risk
In the data analysis, three different approaches were used to address the hypotheses and prediction goals. A multiple linear regression is included for comparative purposes despite its limitations in this context due to violations of normality assumptions. This inclusion enables more comprehensive evaluation of methodological differences and their implications for understanding and predicting sexual assault in college students. Bayesian multiple regression provides an advantage in hypothesis testing by allowing us to quantify uncertainty in parameter estimates, handle violations in assumptions of normality, incorporate priors, and handle smaller sizes more robustly than frequentist methods (Kruschke, 2013; van de Schoot et al., 2017; Yalch, 2016). This is particularly important for understanding the nuanced effects of risky alcohol consumption, childhood trauma, and drinking motives on sexual assault. Random forest machine learning, by contrast, is employed for its predictive accuracy and ability to model complex, non-linear relationships without requiring distributional assumptions. This approach is particularly useful for identifying patterns in high-dimensional data where interactions among predictors may be present. Machine learning is increasingly used in college sexual assault research (Spencer, 2016) because this approach allows for the integration and analysis of multiple complex predictors to accurately predict outcomes. All three methods highlight risky alcohol consumption as the strongest risk factor for sexual assault severity and frequency. Childhood sexual abuse also emerged as a risk factor. By using three approaches, we were able to capture the complexity of these interactions.
Implications for Practice
Discussion Questions
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How might the intersection of childhood trauma and conformity drinking motives uniquely increase vulnerability to sexual assault in college students?
- What are the strengths and limitations of using Bayesian regression and random forest models in psychological research on sensitive topics like sexual assault?
- Given that risky alcohol consumption was the strongest predictor across models, what types of campus-based interventions could effectively reduce this behavior without stigmatizing survivors?
Reference Article
Read the full article here in Journal of Traumatic Stress:
, , , , & (2025). Childhood trauma and drinking motives as predictors of sexual assault in college students. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.70007
About the Authors
Tara Hedayati, MS, earned her master’s degree in psychology from Palo Alto University and her bachelor’s degree in psychology, with a minor in child development, from San Jose State University. She is pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology at Palo Alto University, with a focus on trauma and pediatric behavioral health care. Through her work in the Trauma, Diversity, and Systemic Change Lab, she is passionate about deepening her understanding of trauma and contributing to more inclusive, culturally responsive approaches to care.
Shalet S. Punnoose, MS, BS, received her master’s degree in clinical psychology from the University of Texas at Tyler and her bachelor’s degree in psychology from University of Texas at Dallas. She is currently doing her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Palo Alto University and is part of the Trauma, Diversity, and Systemic Change lab where she researching sexual trauma and its effects.
Sabrin Ghuman, BS, earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Social Action from Palo Alto University in 2023, where she is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. She is a member of the Trauma, Diversity, and Systemic Change Lab, where her research focuses on childhood and sexual trauma among children, adolescents, and young adults, with particular attention to attachment theory and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI).
Kayleigh N. Watters, PhD is an assistant professor at Palo Alto University. She teaches classes related to substance use, trauma, statistics, and psychopathology. She is also the director of the Trauma, Diversity, and Systemic Change (TDSC) lab. Her research focuses on complex trauma, the impact of discrimination on trauma, sexual violence, and reproductive healthcare. She is also the co-chair of the Complex Trauma Special Interest Group for the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS). She received my doctoral degree in clinical psychology with an emphasis in adult trauma from Palo Alto University. Kayleigh completed her predoctoral internship at Oregon State University and postdoctoral fellowship at the Stanford Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Department.
Mikael Rubin, PhD is an Assistant Professor at Palo Alto University, where he directs the Transdiagnostic Intervention Lab. He received a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Texas at Austin, and completed his MA in psychology at the City College of New York and a BA in Art History at McGill University. From studying virtual reality in art to conducting virtual reality exposure therapy, he is particularly curious about how what we attend to influences how we make meaning out of lived experience. In his research he has pursued this broad question in studies using a wide range of methods including eye tracking, psychophysiology (pupillometry and blink rate), neuroimaging, network analysis, and language use. He specializes in research and interventions related to anxiety and posttraumatic stress. He also studies mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions related to mental health. He is especially interested in using large language models, virtual reality, and eye tracking methods to evaluate, enhance, and widely disseminate mental health interventions.
References
Abbey, A. (2002). Alcohol-related sexual assault: a common problem among college students. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, supplement, (s14), 118-128. https://doi.org/10.15288/jsas.2002.s14.118
Abbey, A., Zawacki, T., Buck, P. O., Clinton, A. M., & McAuslan, P. (2004). Sexual assault and alcohol consumption: What do we know about their relationship and what types of research are still needed?. Aggression and violent behavior, 9(3), 271-303. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1359-1789(03)00011-9
Briere, J., & Elliott, D. M. (2003). Prevalence and psychological sequelae of self-reported childhood physical and sexual abuse in a general population sample of men and women. Child Abuse & Neglect, 27(10), 1205-1222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2003.09.008
Kaysen, D., Dillworth, T. M., Simpson, T., Waldrop, A., Larimer, M. E., & Resick, P. A. (2007). Domestic violence and alcohol use: Trauma-related symptoms and motives for drinking. Addictive Behaviors, 32(6), 1272-1283.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2006.09.007
Tuliao, A. P., & McChargue, D. (2014). Problematic alcohol use and sexual assault among male college students: The moderating and mediating roles of alcohol outcome expectancies. The American Journal on Addictions, 23(4), 321-328. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1521-0391.2014.12119.x
Widom, C. S., Czaja, S. J., & Dutton, M. A. (2008). Childhood victimization and lifetime revictimization. Child abuse & neglect, 32(8), 785-796. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2007.12.006