Heather Littleton1, Danny Axsom2, Carmen Radecki Breitkopf3, Abbey B. Berenson3
1Sam Houston State University
2Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
3University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Tóm tắt
Many rape victims are unacknowledged. These victims do not label their experience as rape; instead they give the experience a more benign label, such as a miscommunication. The current study examined the relationship between victims’ acknowledgment status and post-assault behaviors, moving beyond prior research. Analyses of covariance were conducted comparing the post-assault experiences of unacknowledged and acknowledged college rape victims (n = 256), controlling for differences in victims’ assault characteristics, multiple victimization, and post-traumatic stress symptoms. Results supported that unacknowledged and acknowledged victims differed in their coping, disclosure, belief in justice, and receipt of egocentric reactions following disclosure. Implications for future work examining the dynamic interplay among assault characteristics, sexual scripts, acknowledgment status, and post-assault factors are discussed.
