Unsupported or Turned Against: Understanding How Two Types of Negative Social Reactions to Sexual Assault Relate to Postassault Outcomes
Abstract
Social reactions to disclosures of sexual assault have significant effects on women’s postassault outcomes. The Social Reactions Questionnaire measures these reactions (as reported by survivors) and aggregates them into positive and negative scales. However, studies indicate that only some “negative” reactions have a negative valence for survivors, whereas others produce a mixed (positive and negative) valence. The current study compares a one-primary-factor model of negative reactions to a model with two primary factors that we have labeled “turning against” (TA) and “unsupportive acknowledgment” (UA). Results showed that although one primary factor was plausible, two primary factors provided a better fit to the data. To assess the discriminant validity of the two factors, we performed regressions predicting social support, psychological adjustment, and coping behaviors. Analyses supported the hypotheses that reactions of being turned against were related to social withdrawal, increased self-blame, and decreased sexual assertiveness, whereas reactions of UA were related to both adaptive and maladaptive coping. Against predictions, depression and posttraumatic stress disorder were more related to receiving UA than to receiving TA reactions. Implications for interventions and research are discussed. Importantly, almost all women (94%) in our sample received reactions that acknowledged that an assault occurred but failed to provide support, and this lack of support was associated with worse coping than even more hostile reactions such as being blamed or stigmatized. Therefore, there seems a great need for effective programs to train community members to respond to survivors with the kind of emotional and tangible support that promotes better outcomes.
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Article first published online: December 19, 2013
Issue published: March 2015
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