Citation

Littleton HL, Axsom DK, Breitkopf CR, Berenson A. Violence Vict. 2006; 21(6): 761-778.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology and Philosophy, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX. 77341-2447, USA. hlittleton@yahoo.com

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Springer Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

17220018

Abstract

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.

Language: en