This review examines the psychological impact of adult sexual assault through an ecological theoretical perspective to understand how factors at multiple levels of the social ecology contribute to post-assault sequelae. Using Bronfenbrenner's (1979, 1986, 1995) ecological theory of human development, we examine how individual-level factors (e.g., sociodemographics, biological/genetic factors), assault characteristics (e.g., victim-offender relationship, injury, alcohol use), microsystem factors (e.g., informal support from family and friends), meso/ exosystem factors (e.g., contact with the legal, medical, and mental health systems, and rape crisis centers), macrosystem factors (e.g., societal rape myth acceptance), and chronosystem factors (e.g., sexual revictimization and history of other victimizations) affect adult sexual assault survivors' mental health outcomes (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, suicidality, and substance use). Self-blame is conceptualized as meta-construct that stems from all levels of this ecological model. Implications for curbing and/or preventing the negative mental health effects of sexual assault are discussed.
Sexual assault survivors often receive both positive and negative reactions to the disclosure of their assault. Although positive reactions are typically more common from informal support providers and negative reactions are typically more common from formal support providers, not all formal and informal support providers react the same way. To help clarify the nature of social reactions received from specific support providers, 103 female sexual assault survivors participated in interviews about their disclosure experiences. These interviews resulted in detailed descriptions of 250 disclosure interactions. Results indicated that counselors and friends engaged in the most emotional support, fairly high levels of tangible aid, and fairly low levels of most types of negative reactions. Romantic partners provided only moderate support, the lowest amount of tangible aid, and the highest amount of blame, control, and egocentric behaviors. Romantic partners also treated survivors differently more often than other support providers. Qualitative analysis of survivors' descriptions of these reactions are used to help interpret survivors' ratings of reactions as healing or hurtful.
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