ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Health Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1648804
This article is part of the Research TopicHealth and Psychological Adaptations to Life Challenges and Stressful Conditions - Volume IIView all 4 articles
SOCIAL REACTIONS IN SEXUAL ASSAULT VICTIMS
Provisionally accepted
- 1Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, Oslo, Norway
- 2Dept of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- 3Dept of Psychology, Oslo Nye Hoyskole, Oslo, Norway
- 4Norwegian Centre for Emergency Primary Health Care, Bergen, Norway, Oslo, Norway
- 5Regionsenter for barn og unges psykiske helse Helseregion Ost og Sor, Oslo, Norway
- 6Dept of Criminology, Law, and Justice, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, United States
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Introduction: It is well known that social support is related to mental health following sexual assault (SA). Recent research suggests that social reactions to disclosure may also affect mental health; however, few studies have accounted for general social support, and most have been conducted many years after the assault. This study aimed to examine whether social reactions are uniquely linked to mental health when adjusting for perceived social support in recent victims of SA. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, participants were recruited from Sexual Assault Centers (SACs) and through social media. The sample comprised 173 female participants (mean age = 26 years, SD = 8.6) who had experienced a SA within the last six months and had disclosed the SA to someone. We used linear regression analyses to assess associations between social reactions to disclosure, social support, and posttraumatic stress reactions (PTSR) and anxiety/depression symptoms. Results: Although positive social reactions to disclosure were most common, negative social reactions were highly prevalent even in this early phase after SA. Negative social reactions of the Unsupportive acknowledgement type were significantly associated with more PTSR (b = 0.36, 95% CI = 0.14, 0.57), while perceived social support was significantly associated with fewer symptoms of anxiety/depression (b = -0.20, 95% CI = -0.32, -0.08). Conclusions: Social reactions and social support were differentially associated with PTSR and anxiety/depression symptoms, indicating that certain aspects of social relationships may play different roles in the recovery process. Our results call for early interventions following SA to reduce negative reactions to disclosure and facilitate the provision of positive social support to victims.
Keywords: Sexual Assault, PTSD, Anxiety/depression, Social reactions to disclosure, Socialsupport, Victimization
Received: 17 Jun 2025; Accepted: 22 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Thoresen, Blix, Johnsen, Wentzel-Larsen and Ullman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Siri Thoresen, Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, Oslo, Norway
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