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Social Network Changes and Disclosure Responses after Sexual Assault
Anna E Jaffe1, Jessica A Blayney2, Macey R Schallert2
1Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Psychology of Women Quarterly
|August 28, 2023
Summary
Social support is crucial for sexual assault recovery. Survivors experienced network changes, especially with unhelpful responses, impacting mental health.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Sociology
- Public Health
Background:
- Social support is vital for recovery after sexual assault.
- Sexual violence and recovery can negatively impact interpersonal relationships.
- Understanding changes in social support networks is key to aiding survivors' mental health.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine changes in functional and structural social support following sexual assault.
- To investigate the association between social support changes and mental health outcomes in college women.
- To identify factors within social networks that may hinder or facilitate recovery.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional survey of 544 college women, assessing social networks (current and past).
- Evaluation of functional support (perceived support, disclosure, response helpfulness) and structural support (network density, size, retention).
- Utilized multilevel models and structural equation modeling to analyze data.
Main Results:
- Sexual assault survivors reported smaller, less dense past networks but similar current network sizes compared to non-survivors.
- Survivors retained fewer network members, particularly those who responded unhelpfully to disclosure.
- Unhelpful disclosure responses and greater network loss were linked to poorer mental health among survivors.
Conclusions:
- Sexual assault can lead to social network restructuring, especially when support systems respond inadequately.
- While survivors may form new relationships, this restructuring, particularly with negative support experiences, correlates with increased mental health challenges.
- Interventions focusing on improving social network retention post-assault may be beneficial for survivor recovery.
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