Predictors of college women's disclosure of sexual assault prior to and during college.

Abstract

Talking to others about experiences of sexual assault can facilitate recovery. The present study explored associations between assault characteristics, attitudes, coping strategies, social support, and the college women's disclosure of adolescent sexual victimization (N = 134), as well as sexual victimization over a 7-month interim during college (N = 67). A sample of first-year college women completed pencil and paper assessments of sexual victimization, assault characteristics, tendency to disclose, self-concealment, attributions of blame, likelihood to report sexual victimization, social support., and coping strategies. A series of bivariate and multivariate analyses examined predictors of sexual assault disclosure. Whereas acknowledgment of the sexual assault as victimization predicted disclosure of adolescent sexual assault, less acquaintance with the perpetrator and strong social attachments predicted disclosure of sexual assault occurring during women's first year of college. Data suggest that the factors that influence disclosure of sexual assault may vary across periods of adolescent and young adult development.