Pathways to help: adolescent sexual assault victims' disclosure and help-seeking experiences. 2015

Rebecca Campbell, and Megan R Greeson, and Giannina Fehler-Cabral, and Angie C Kennedy
Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI rmc@msu.edu.

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.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008297 Male Males
D010342 Patient Acceptance of Health Care Patients' willingness to receive health care. Acceptability of Health Care,Health Care Seeking Behavior,Acceptability of Healthcare,Acceptors of Health Care,Health Care Utilization,Nonacceptors of Health Care,Patient Acceptance of Healthcare,Care Acceptor, Health,Care Acceptors, Health,Care Nonacceptor, Health,Care Nonacceptors, Health,Health Care Acceptability,Health Care Acceptor,Health Care Acceptors,Health Care Nonacceptor,Health Care Nonacceptors,Healthcare Acceptabilities,Healthcare Acceptability,Healthcare Patient Acceptance,Healthcare Patient Acceptances,Utilization, Health Care
D011902 Rape Sexual intercourse without consent of the victim.
D003219 Confidentiality The privacy of information and its protection against unauthorized disclosure. Patient Data Privacy,Privacy of Patient Data,Privileged Communication,Confidential Information,Secrecy,Communication, Privileged,Communications, Privileged,Data Privacy, Patient,Information, Confidential,Privacy, Patient Data,Privileged Communications
D005260 Female Females
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000066505 Help-Seeking Behavior Form of social behavior in which assistance is sought from others. Behavior, Help-Seeking,Behaviors, Help-Seeking,Help Seeking Behavior,Help-Seeking Behaviors
D000293 Adolescent A person 13 to 18 years of age. Adolescence,Youth,Adolescents,Adolescents, Female,Adolescents, Male,Teenagers,Teens,Adolescent, Female,Adolescent, Male,Female Adolescent,Female Adolescents,Male Adolescent,Male Adolescents,Teen,Teenager,Youths
D000328 Adult A person having attained full growth or maturity. Adults are of 19 through 44 years of age. For a person between 19 and 24 years of age, YOUNG ADULT is available. Adults
D014473 Unconscious, Psychology Those forces and content of the mind which are not ordinarily available to conscious awareness or to immediate recall. Psychological Unconscious,Subconscious,Unconscious (Psychology),Psychology Unconscious,Unconscious, Psychological

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