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What factors predict women's disclosure of sexual assault to mental health professionals?
Author(s) -
Starzynski Laura L.,
Ullman Sarah E.,
Townsend Stephanie M.,
Long LaDonna M.,
Long Susan M.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/jcop.20168
Subject(s) - sexual assault , mental health , psychology , clinical psychology , sexual orientation , psychiatry , blame , attribution , receipt , suicide prevention , poison control , medicine , medical emergency , social psychology , world wide web , computer science
Abstract Although many sexual assault survivors seek support from mental health sources for adverse psychological symptoms due to sexual assault, many do not. A diverse sample of adult sexual assault survivors was surveyed about their sexual assault experiences, social reactions received when disclosing assault, attributions of blame, coping strategies, and psychological symptomatology. Statistical analyses were run to identify demographic, assault, and postassault factors differentiating women who disclosed from those who did not disclose sexual assault to mental health sources. Both demographic (race, sexual orientation, and age) and postassault factors (posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] symptom severity, number of informal support sources told, receipt of tangible aid/information support) significantly predicted assault disclosure. Implications of the results are discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 35: 619–638, 2007.