Violence
Prevalence and characteristics of choking/strangulation during sex: Findings from a probability survey of undergraduate students.
Open Access: Yes.
Abstract
Objective: In a random sample of undergraduate students, we aimed to: (1) establish the prevalence of choking and being choked; (2) examine demographic and situational predictors of being choked, and (3) examine demographic and situational predictors of choking someone.
Participants: 4168 randomly sampled undergraduates at a large public U.S. university.
Methods: A cross-sectional, confidential online survey.
Results: We found that 26.5% of women, 6.6% of men, and 22.3% of transgender and gender non-binary participants reported having been choked during their most recent sexual event. Additionally, 5.7% of women, 24.8% of men, and 25.9% of transgender and non-binary participants reported that they choked their partner at their most recent event. Choking was more prevalent among sexual minority students.
Conclusions: Choking is prevalent among undergraduate students; implications for college sexual health education are discussed.
Relevance
“Using event level data from 4168 randomly sampled undergraduate students at a U.S. university, we found that choking/strangulation was prevalent and gendered. Applying a broad and inclusive definition of one’s most recent sexual event, far more women students reported that their partner choked them as compared to men students.”
“Transgender and gender non-binary individuals reported higher rates of having choked or been choked; however, caution is urged in attempting to generalize findings to TGNB college students due to our small sample size of these individuals and because TGNB people are heterogenous. We also found that LGB women were significantly more likely to choke a partner, and to be choked. Significantly more gay and bisexual men reported having been choked but there were no significant differences between sexual majority and sexual minorized men in terms of choking a partner. Further, we found that first year students who were women (but not men) were significantly more likely to report having been choked, as were men who identified as Black or Hispanic. Taken together, being choked appears to be more common among groups of people who generally hold less social power and who disproportionately experience sexual assault (e.g., cisgender women, TGNB individuals, LGBTQ + individuals, first year female college students, some racial/ethnic minoritized individuals).”
“Choking is one of the more common dominant acts in popular pornography, alongside spanking, slapping, hair pulling, double-penetration, and others. Overwhelmingly in these depictions, men are in dominant roles and women are in submissive roles, or are targets/recipients of such behaviors.”
Citation
Herbenick, D., Fu, T.-chieh, Patterson, C., Rosenstock Gonzalez, Y. R., Luetke, M., Svetina Valdivia, D., Eastman-Mueller, H., Guerra-Reyes, L., & Rosenberg, M. (2023). Prevalence and characteristics of choking/strangulation during sex: Findings from a probability survey of undergraduate students. Journal of American College Health, 71(4), 1059–1073. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2021.1920599
