Social Reactions to Disclosure of Sexual Victimization and Adjustment Among Survivors of Sexual Assault
Abstract
How a support provider responds to disclosure of sexual victimization has important implications for the process of recovery. The present study examines the associations between various positive and negative social reactions to sexual assault disclosure and psychological distress, coping behavior, social support, and self-esteem in a sample of college women (N = 374). Social reactions to assault disclosure that attempted to control the survivor's decisions were associated with increased symptoms of posttraumatic stress, depression, and anxiety and lower perceptions of reassurance of worth from others. Blaming social reactions were associated with less self-esteem and engagement in coping via problem solving. Social reactions that provided emotional support to the survivor were associated with increased coping by seeking emotional support. Contrary to expectations, social reactions that treated the survivor differently were associated with higher self-esteem. Implications are discussed.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Positive social support following a sexual assault can improve coping.
“improve coping (Orchowski et al., 2013)”
From “Having One Person Tell Me I Didn’t Do the Wrong Thing”: The Impact of Support on the Post-Sexual Assault Exam Experience (2024) · cites this paper as Orchowski et al., 2013
Cites
A new scale of social desirability independent of psychopathology.
Crowne, D. P., & Marlowe, D. (1960) · Journal of Consulting Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0047358 · Cited by 8,686 · see citing works
Regression Diagnostics: Identifying Influential Data and Sources of Collinearity
Belsley, D. A., Kuh, E., & Welsch, R. E. (1980) · Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics · doi:10.1002/0471725153 · Cited by 7,297 · see citing works
Positive change following trauma and adversity: A review
Linley, P. A., & Joseph, S. (2004) · Journal of Traumatic Stress · doi:10.1023/b:jots.0000014671.27856.7e · Cited by 2,260 · see citing works
Sexual Experiences Survey: A research instrument investigating sexual aggression and victimization.
Koss, M. P., & Oros, C. J. (1982) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.50.3.455 · Cited by 1,444 · see citing works
Social support and adaptation to stress by the elderly
Cutrona, C., Russell, D., & Rose, J. (1986) · Psychology and Aging · doi:10.1037/0882-7974.1.1.47 · Cited by 337 · see citing works
Positive and negative adjustment and social support of sexual assault survivors
Borja, S. E., Callahan, J. L., & Long, P. J. (2006) · Journal of Traumatic Stress · doi:10.1002/jts.20169 · Cited by 194 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Ullman, S. E. (2023) · Trauma, Violence, & Abuse · doi:10.1177/15248380211016013 · Cited by 107 · see citing works
Zinzow, H. M., Littleton, H., Muscari, E., & Sall, K. (2022) · Victims & Offenders · doi:10.1080/15564886.2021.1978023 · Cited by 90 · see citing works
Sharing #MeToo on Twitter: incidents, coping responses, and social reactions
Schneider, K. T., & Carpenter, N. J. (2019) · Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal · doi:10.1108/edi-09-2018-0161 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Wright, E. N., Miyamoto, S., & Anderson, J. (2024) · Violence Against Women · doi:10.1177/10778012231156153 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“…having positive social support, both formal and informal, following a SA can help decrease mental health symptoms (Dworkin et al., 2018: Ullman & Peter-Hagene, 2016), improve coping (Orchowski et al., 2013), and provide needed validation and further assistance to individuals (Kirkner et al., 2021).”
BackgroundInfluential
- Authors
- Orchowski, L. M., Untied, A. S., & Gidycz, C. A.
- Affiliations
- Brown University (US)
- Xavier University (US)
- Ohio University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Interpersonal Violence
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2013-01-08
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 2005-2023
- ISSN
- 0886-2605 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-6518
- OpenAlex
- W2047792825
- Cited by
- 225
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 32 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 23.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Interpersonal Violence (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1 R49 CE0009239)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Sexual Assault and Victimization Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Social Sciences › Health › Intimate Partner and Family Violence
- Keywords
- sexual assault, social reactions, female university students, psychological distress, post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, self-esteem, coping, social support, emotional support, blame, control, reassurance of worth
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adolescent, Mental Disorders, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Self Concept, Sex Offenses, Social Support, Survivors, Crime Victims, Feedback, Psychological, Disclosure, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
