Measuring Social Reactions to Female Survivors of Alcohol-Involved Sexual Assault

Abstract

For women who disclose sexual assault, social reactions can affect post-assault adjustment (Ullman, 2000). Approximately half of sexual assaults of adult women involve alcohol use (Abbey et al., 2004). Experimental studies indicate that people put more blame on women who were drinking before the assault, yet no studies have assessed how often actual survivors receive social reactions specific to their alcohol use. This study presents a new measure to assess alcohol-specific social reactions for survivors of sexual assault (The Social Reactions Questionnaire –Alcohol, SRQ-A). Factor analyses of a large community sample indicated that women often receive both positive and negative alcohol-specific reactions when disclosing assault. Discriminant validity confirmed that such reactions are distinct from other types of assault-related social reactions. Against predictions, alcohol-specific reactions were not associated with depression, post-traumatic stress symptoms, binge drinking, or intoxication. However, in support of hypotheses, alcohol-specific reactions were related to increased characterological self-blame and alcohol problems. Notably, such reactions had both positive and negative relationships with self-blame, indicating a potential avenue for intervention. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

Longitudinal Effects of Sexual Assault Victims’ Drinking and Self-Blame on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

“…Rape victims are often blamed for the assault, especially in acquaintance/date rapes where victims’ behavior is perceived as inviting or not cautious enough. Alcohol is most often involved in these scenarios (e.g., Peter-Hagene & Ullman, 2015) that elicit victim-blaming, and drinking itself is a primary reason why victims get blamed (Relyea & Ullman, 2015). Thus, drinking was related to both behavioral and characterological self-blame.…”

Exploring Correlates of Alcohol-Specific Social Reactions in Alcohol-Involved Sexual Assaults

“…Although most sexual assault survivors do not tell anyone about their assault immediately after the incident, approximately two-thirds tell someone at some point (Koss, Dinero, Seibel, & Cox, 1988), though disclosure may vary based on the presence of pre-assault alcohol use. Women who disclose assaults to others often receive negative social reactions that can harm post-assault adjustment, particularly if they disclose their pre-assault alcohol use (Relyea & Ullman, 2015). Despite the prevalence of alcohol-involved assault, most research examines assault disclosure and reactions generally without considering how assault-related drinking or disclosing alcohol use influence social reactions made to survivors.…”

“…Experimental studies show that women who drink are perceived more negatively by observers, with women being viewed as more sexually available (see Abbey et al, 2014 for a review). The present study explores demographic, situational, and interpersonal social network factors predicting alcohol use disclosure and the social reactions survivors receive that specifically comment on the survivor’s pre-assault drinking, labeled alcohol-specific social reactions (Relyea & Ullman, 2015). Alcohol-specific social reactions differ from general social reactions because they are specific to the survivor’s pre-assault alcohol use.…”

“…timing, detail) but have neglected to assess these factors in terms of disclosing pre-assault alcohol use. This is needed, as there are notable differences in the experiences, disclosures, and social reactions of alcohol and non-alcohol involved assaults (Ullman & Najdowski, 2010), including the presence of social reactions specific to pre-assault alcohol use (Relyea & Ullman, 2015). Extant research highlights the necessity of studying alcohol-specific social reactions, as survivors of alcohol-involved assault may not be receiving the positive social support needed to facilitate positive post-assault adjustment.…”

“…Research is also lacking on effects of alcohol-specific social reactions on psychological recovery. In a prior study, we used a new measure on alcohol-specific social reactions the Social Reactions Questionnaire – Alcohol (SRQ-A; Relyea & Ullman, 2015) and found that: (a) victims received alcohol-specific social reactions, (b) women report receiving more positive (81%) than negative (72%) alcohol-specific social reactions; and (c) most survivors disclosing alcohol-related sexual assaults felt that disclosing their drinking made things worse (43%), or made no difference (46%), though only 11% felt alcohol use disclosure made things better. Given the importance of social reactions on recovery and post-assault adjustment, there is evidence that suggests alcohol-specific social reactions should be studied separately from social reactions in general.…”