Unacknowledged Rape: The Influences of Child Sexual Abuse and Personality Traits

Childhood Trauma and College Sexual Harassment: Coping and Resilience as Moderators

Childhood trauma has been identified as a risk factor for future revictimization, especially in young adulthood. There is an established link between childhood victimization and later sexual assault, but it is unclear if childhood trauma is associated with sexual harassment. Related research has examined coping and resilience as buffers, or moderators, against negative outcomes associated with childhood victimization and sexual assault, so the buffering effect of these variables will be explored for sexual harassment as well. In a sample of 583 young adults age 18-25, self-report measures of childhood trauma, sexual harassment, coping, and resilience, were collected via an online survey tool. Results of a path analysis suggest that, in general, childhood trauma places young adults at a risk for sexual harassment. Resiliency did not moderate the association between childhood trauma and sexual harassment in young adulthood, but coping did moderate this association. Specifically, when coping was high, trauma and sexual harassment were negatively related, but when coping was low to moderate, trauma and sexual harassment were positively related.

Differences in Rape Acknowledgment and Mental Health Outcomes Across Transgender, Nonbinary, and Cisgender Bisexual Youth

The purpose of this study was to document the rates of rape acknowledgment (labeling rape as rape rather than using a minimizing label) and the corresponding mental health correlates using the minority stress framework in a unique and vulnerable sample: racially diverse sexual and gender minority young adults. Participants were 245 young adults who identified their sexual orientation as under the bisexual umbrella. A total of 159 of these participants (65.2%) identified their gender identity as nonbinary. All participants completed a series of online questionnaires regarding their sexual victimization history, mental health outcomes (depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD]), and constructs relevant to minority stress theory (level of outness, internalized bisexual negativity, connection to LGBTQ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning] community). Rape acknowledgment was significantly greater among gender nonbinary participants (79.9%) than among trans and cisgender male participants (17.9%). Lack of rape acknowledgment was associated with increased anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Outness was significantly associated with greater rape acknowledgment. Despite the highly increased vulnerability for sexual violence among sexual and gender minorities, very little is understood about the mechanisms of this increased vulnerability or their unique needs for recovery. The results of this study strongly suggest the importance of a minority stress framework for understanding this increased vulnerability and for designing sexual violence prevention and recovery interventions for sexual and gender minority populations.

Characteristics and Post-Decision Attitudes of Non-Reporting Sexual Violence Victims

Although the physical and psychological consequences of sexual violence can be severe, many victims do not report the violence to the police force. The current study examined the characteristics and the post-decisional attitude of the non-reporting sexual violence victims. In total, 287 victims of sexual violence completed an anonymous online questionnaire that assessed characteristics of the violence, whether or not the crime was reported, reasons for not reporting, and aspects that would have convinced non-reporters to report in retrospect. Eighty percent of the victims did not report the most recent sexual violence incident to the police ( n = 229). Nevertheless, 65% of the non-reporting victims ( n = 148) in retrospect would have reported to the police ("potential reporters"). Specific reasons for non-reporting and incident characteristics appear to relate to the post-decision attitude of non-reporting victims of sexual violence. "Lack of evidence" and "feelings of shame, guilt, and other emotions" appear to be more frequently mentioned by potential reporters as reasons for their decision to not report as compared with the definitive non-reporters. Likewise, being raped or sexually assaulted is predictive of potential reporting. Our findings are useful for policy makers to develop strategies to increase reporting rates of sexual violence victims.

The unique associations between rape acknowledgment and the DSM-5 PTSD symptom clusters

It is well documented in the sexual assault literature that more than half of rape survivors do not label their experience as rape. This is called unacknowledged rape. Although this phenomenon is common and undoubtedly has huge implications for psychotherapy, the impact of acknowledgment status on psychological adjustment is unclear. The present study aimed to delineate the unique impact of rape acknowledgment on psychopathology by examining PTSD symptoms at the cluster level. To examine this, 178 female college students who reported rape completed an online survey, including an assessment of PTSD symptoms in the past month. The results suggested that, after accounting for several covariates, acknowledged rape survivors reported significantly greater levels of intrusion and avoidance symptoms compared to unacknowledged rape survivors. The findings suggest that examining PTSD symptoms at the cluster level may provide more insight into the process of recovery following rape and therefore may better inform treatment decisions.