TY - JOUR PY - 2015// TI - Pathways to help: adolescent sexual assault victims' disclosure and help-seeking experiences JO - Violence against women A1 - Campbell, Rebecca A1 - Greeson, Megan R. A1 - Fehler-Cabral, Giannina A1 - Kennedy, Angie C. SP - 824 EP - 847 VL - 21 IS - 7 N2 - In this study, we conducted semistructured interviews with N = 20 adolescent sexual assault victims who sought postassault help from the medical and legal system to understand young survivors' disclosure and help-seeking processes.

RESULTS revealed three distinct disclosure patterns and pathways to help-seeking. First, in the voluntary disclosure group, victims told their friends, who encouraged them to tell an adult, who then encouraged-and assisted-the survivors in seeking help. Throughout this process, the survivors' disclosures at each step were within their control and reflected their choices for how to proceed. Second, in the involuntary disclosure pattern, victims also first disclosed to friends, but then those friends told adults about the assault, against the survivors' wishes; the adults made the victims seek help, which was also against the survivors' preferences. Third, in situational disclosures, the survivors were unconscious at the time of the assault, and their friends disclosed and sought help on their behalf. We also examined how these initial disclosure patterns related to victims' continued engagement with these systems.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1077-8012 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1077801215584071 ID - ref1 ER -