Poster #242 - Undergraduates’ Experiences Receiving Sexual Assault Disclosures

• In Event: ASC Poster Session I

Abstract

Research demonstrates that the experience of sexual assault disclosure is a highly impactful moment in the survivors’ life (Ahrens, 2006; Ullman, 2024), but there is little research investigating how these conversations impact the person the survivor decides to tell. The little available research suggests that it can greatly impact the person receiving the disclosure as well (Rich et al., 2021). Receiving a disclosure may bring up emotions in the receiver that cause them to react in a specific way (e.g., emotionally supportive, victim blaming), which can then alter how the survivor moves forward. The goal of the current study is to understand the experience of the person receiving the disclosure. Researchers conducted an online survey of undergraduate students (n = 53) at a regional public university. Approximately 51% (n = 28) of the participants have received a disclosure of sexual assault. Only 4 respondents talked to the survivor everyday in the week following the disclosure, whereas 9 respondents noted they never spoke to the survivor in the week following the disclosure. The results of this pilot study will help expand literature on the topic of sexual assault disclosure and how people understand the interaction of a disclosure as a whole.

Authors

• Morgan J. Graves, Christopher Newport University

• Sarah Koon-Magnin, Christopher Newport University

• Michelle P. Lange, Christopher Newport University