Is There Harm in Asking? Relative Distress and Cost-Benefit of Sexual Assault-Focused Research Participation Among...

Given concerns about possible "retraumatization" among individuals who participate in research examining the impact of sexual assault (SA), this study explored college student perceptions of participation in a longitudinal SA-focused study. Participants (N = 124) were college women who had (21%) or had not (79%) experienced SA in the past 12 months. At each of five timepoints (baseline through 12-month follow-up), they reported sexual trauma history and trauma-related psychopathology, completed a written narrative of their SA (if endorsed), and answered three questions about distress and cost-benefit of their participation. At baseline, 83.1% of women rated completing the SA-related surveys as neutral or less distressing than anticipated, 95.2% rated it as somewhat more (than neutral) or very important for psychologists to ask about SA, and 93.5% endorsed it as a somewhat good or very good idea to ask SA-related questions in psychology research. No significant differences emerged between women who endorsed SA versus no SA (all ps > .05). Similar patterns emerged at each timepoint. Contrary to popular belief, most participants, even those who experienced SA, found participating in SA-focused to be less distressing than anticipated and highly important. Findings replicate prior research and may help better inform institutional decision-makers who impact the implementation of SA-focused research.