title: Coercive Sexual Environments: Development and Validation of a Scale.
abstract: In this article, we present the results of our efforts to develop and test a scale to operationalize and measure a neighborhood-level indicator of coercive sexual environments (CSEs), a construct emerging from our earlier work on safety and sexual threats among young girls living in chronically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Data for this study come from a survey of 124 adult and 79 youth respondents living in public housing in Washington, D.C., and participating in the Housing Opportunities and Services Together Demonstration, a multisite project testing the feasibility and effectiveness of place-based, dual-generation case management models to improve outcomes for vulnerable families. Our psychometric analysis indicates that the CSE scales we developed for adults and youth have high internal consistency. Together with our analyses of construct validity, the present findings suggest that CSE is a unitary construct that may be an important factor to include in models of neighborhood processes and risk.
authors.affiliation: 1 Urban Institute, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Popkin
authors.affiliation: 2 New York University, New York City, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Chantal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hailey
authors.affiliation: 1 Urban Institute, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Janine
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zweig
authors.affiliation: 1 Urban Institute, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Nan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Astone
authors.affiliation: 1 Urban Institute, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Reed
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jordan
authors.affiliation: 3 University of California San Diego School of Medicine, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Leah
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.affiliation: 3 University of California San Diego School of Medicine, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Jay
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Silverman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003068:Coercion; D004219:District of Columbia; D005260:Female; D006798:Housing; D006801:Humans; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: community violence; sexual assault; sexual harassment; violence exposure