Pathways to Help

Adolescent Sexual Assault Victims’ Disclosure and Help-Seeking Experiences

Bibliographic Data

ID12436802
AuthorsRebecca Campbell (0000-0003-0442-9835, Michigan State University, corresponding author), Megan R Greeson (0000-0001-7588-7572, DePaul University), Giannina Fehler-Cabral (Harder+Company Community Research, Los Angeles, CA), Giannina Fehler‐cabral, Anne-Catherine Kennedy (0000-0003-3642-9530, Michigan State University)
Year2015
Volume21
Issue7
Pages824-847
Publication date2015-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueViolence Against Women (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1077-8012 • E-ISSN: 1552-8448
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1077801215584071
PMID25933673
OpenAlexW1965230771
LanguageEN
Citations received38
References cited40

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

Help-seeking · Injury prevention · Medical emergency · Mental health · Poison control · Psychiatry · Self-disclosure · Sexual assault · Situational ethics · Suicide prevention · Child Abuse and Trauma · Human Factors and Ergonomics · Intimate Partner and Family Violence · Medicine · Psychology · Sexual Assault and Victimization Studies · Social Psychology

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