Impacto de la Coerción Sexual en la Salud Mental y Actitud Hacia la Sexualidad: Un Estudio Comparativo Entre Bolivia, Chile y España

The study compares the influence of sexual coercion on mental health and attitude toward sexuality in 3 socio-cultural contexts. Convenience purposive sampling was used. Of a total of 7,586 invitations to participate in this research, 1,251 heterosexual college students from Bolivia, Chile, and Spain (a 17% response rate) responded to 3 online questionnaires: the 12-item General Health Questionnaire, the Scale of Sexuality and the Scale of Non-Consensual Sexual Experiences. c 2 and factorial ANOVA were used to analyze the results. A 24% of the students reported having experienced some form of sexual coercion (26% female and 20.1% male). Of these, more Bolivian (31%) youngsters than Chilean (24.1%) and Spanish (16%) youngsters reported having lived these experiences, which were associated with increased anxiety and depression and a more negative attitude towards sexuality. The impact on mental health and attitude toward sexuality seems to depend on the type of sexual coercion experienced, nationality, and sex. Socio-cultural factors may be related to its prevalence and health impact.