J Fam Trauma Child Custody Child Dev
May 2022
Latinas/os/xs experience pervasive rates of interpersonal violence victimization while also experiencing frequent discrimination and societal trauma (e.g., hate crimes).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProviding efficient psychosocial support for survivors of sexual assault is of critical societal importance. Around the globe, technology-based solutions (eHealth) are increasingly being used to accomplish this task, especially following COVID-19. Despite increased importance and reliance on eHealth for sexual assault, minimal efforts have been made to systematically synthesize research in this area.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRape survivors who submit to a medical forensic exam generally expect the resulting rape kit to be tested, but hundreds of thousands of rape kits have been left untested in police storage facilities nationwide. The current study sought to understand what the experience of having an untested rape kit was like for survivors. Using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, this study examined narratives of 15 survivors whose rape kits had been part of the rape kit backlog.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe majority of intimate partner violence survivors tell at least one person about the abuse, and the reactions of these support providers can have a profound impact on survivors' recovery. In recent years, the Social Reactions Questionnaire (SRQ) has become the predominant measure of social reactions toward intimate partner violence survivors, but the SRQ was developed based on the experiences of sexual assault survivors only. To determine how well intimate partner violence survivors' descriptions of social reactions from informal support providers align with constructs in the SRQ, we examined qualitative interview data about survivors' interactions with informal support providers obtained from a larger study with 113 female survivors of intimate partner violence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: Despite knowledge about the extensive and often long-lasting consequences of sexual assault, many survivors remain underserved by formal support systems (e.g. medical, mental health and criminal justice systems).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUsing a mixed-methods design, the present study examined intimate partner surveillance among a diverse sample of intimate partner abuse (IPA) survivors ( = 246), including women of Mexican ( = 83), Korean ( = 50), Vietnamese ( = 49), and European descent ( = 64). Most survivors (57%) described surveillance in either survey or interview; inductive thematic analysis revealed seven forms of surveillance. Finally, two-step cluster analysis identified two patterns of victimization most clearly differentiated by surveillance, but ethnic group differences in rates and patterns of abuse did not emerge.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Trauma Dissociation
May 2021
In the wake of the discovery of untested rape kits across the country, jurisdictions now face questions about how best to reengage with survivors in a sensitive and empowering way. The current study sought to provide guidance on this question through interviews and surveys about effective victim notification procedures. Using a combination of purposive and snowball sampling, the current study interviewed 76 criminal justice, advocacy, and public policy professionals and 19 rape survivors from across the country about their recommendations for rape kit notification.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA growing body of research suggests that the type of social reactions sexual assault survivors receive from others can have a profound impact on their health and well-being. Far less is known about the impact of social reactions on the ensuing relationship between survivors and the people to whom they disclose. The current study sought to address this gap in the literature by examining the impact of disclosure on survivors' relationships with friends, family members, and romantic partners.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe interACT Sexual Assault Prevention Program is an interactive, skill-building performance based on the pedagogy of Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed. A longitudinal evaluation of this program compared pretest, posttest, and 3-month follow-up data from 509 university student participants. Results suggested that the interACT performance was successful in increasing participants' beliefs about the effectiveness of bystander interventions and the self-rated likelihood that participants would engage in bystander interventions in the future.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo provide a more complete picture of the prevalence, impact, and treatment of sexual assault among Latinas, researchers must begin to develop and employ culturally competent recruitment and data-collection procedures that can facilitate participation and disclosure. In this article, we sought to synthesize recommendations from research with Latino populations, community-based and participatory action research, and research on sexual assault to provide a list of suggestions for conducting culturally competent research about sexual assault with Latino populations. Innovative examples from our own focus group study with Latinas are provided throughout.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere is a growing body of research examining the disclosure of sexual assault. But the focus on time to first disclosure does not capture the whole picture. Survivors also differ in how long they continue to disclose, to whom they disclose, and the types of reactions received during disclosure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of this project was to conduct a qualitative study of how participating in in-depth interviews impacted rape survivors. These interviews contained both open-ended, free response section and closed-ended, standardized assessments. The implementation of the interviews was informed by principles of feminist interviewing, which emphasized reducing hierarchy between the interviewer and interviewee, providing information and resources, and creating an emotionally supportive and compassionate setting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite a growing body of literature documenting beneficial outcomes of religious coping, there are virtually no studies examining sexual assault survivors' use of religious coping. To fill this gap in the literature, the current study examines predictors and outcomes of positive and negative religious coping among 100 sexual assault survivors who believed in God. Results suggested that African American survivors were more likely to use both forms of religious coping than survivors from other ethnicities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFace-to-face interviewing is a common data collection technique in violence against women research. To guide the development of interviewer training programs, the authors conducted an empirical study on adult rape survivors' recommendations for interview practice. They asked survivors what interviewers should know about rape and how they should interact with participants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Community Psychol
December 2006
Rape survivors who speak out about their assault experiences are often punished for doing so when they are subjected to negative reactions from support providers. These negative reactions may thereby serve a silencing function, leading some rape survivors to stop talking about their experiences to anyone at all. The current study sought to examine this worst case scenario.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Community Psychol
June 2004
This paper describes how the values of a feminist research team influenced methodological decisions in a study of rape survivors. Building upon concepts from community psychology and urban sociology, the authors created a community-based research design that respected the emotional needs of rape survivors without sacrificing methodological rigor. We developed relationships with community members in diverse settings, such as nail and hair salons, child care centers, churches, and bookstores, to advertise the study and recruit participants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study used cluster analysis to identify three patterns of sexual health risk behaviors in a sample of adult rape survivors (N=102). Women in the 1st cluster (high risk) reported substantial increases from pre- to postrape in their frequency of sexual activity, number of sexual partners, infrequency of condom use, and frequency of using alcohol and/or drugs during sex. The 2nd cluster (moderate risk) reported increases in frequency of sexual activity and number of partners but mitigated that risk with increased condom use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrevious research has established a link between childhood sexual abuse and engaging in prostitution as an adult. The purpose of this study was to extend this literature by exploring whether being raped as an adult is associated with exchanging sex for money. Interviews with 102 rape survivors in a major metropolitan area revealed that 23.
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