Social Ecological Factors in Sexual Violence Against Cisgender Bisexual Women 147 views

A growing body of research indicates that bisexual women face a disproportionately higher risk of sexual violence compared to lesbian and heterosexual women. However, the specific factors contributing to this vulnerability remain understudied. Given the impact of sexual violence on physical and mental health, it is crucial to identify risk and protective factors unique to bisexual women. While previous research has examined general factors (e.g., child sexual abuse) and bisexuality-specific factors (e.g., binegativity) associated with sexual victimization, few studies have comprehensively integrated both types of risk factors to assess their relative importance in explaining the elevated risk of sexual violence against bisexual women. To address this critical gap, the present study employed a newly developed integrative social ecological model of sexual violence risk for cisgender bisexual women, examining how general and bisexuality-specific risk and protective factors operate across individual, interpersonal, and societal levels. Through a cross-sectional online survey of 866 cisgender women aged 25 to 34 years residing in the United States—including 425 bisexual and 441 heterosexual women—results of hierarchical binary logistic regression revealed that age, binge drinking, child emotional abuse, sexual assertiveness, number of sexual partners, adolescent sexual victimization, and bisexual+ community connectedness were significantly associated with adult sexual victimization. These findings provide a more comprehensive understanding of the factors contributing to bisexual women’s vulnerability to sexual violence and offer important insights for developing targeted prevention and intervention strategies to promote the safety and well-being of bisexual women.

PHD (Doctor of Philosophy)

sexual violence; bisexual women; heterosexual women; risk factor; protective factor

English

2025-07-17