Negative social reactions, such as victim blame, are commonly experienced by victims of rape and are related to poorer psychological and physical health. The proposed project examines how sexual assault experiences may engender negative social reactions from social network members, which may be associated with maladaptive victim responses (e.g., self-blame attributions, avoidance coping), and consequently more psychological symptoms and drinking problems in women embracing alcohol expectancies involving its self-medication function. In phase 1 of the project, a mail survey of approximately 1,000 respondents recruited from three distinct victim populations (college students, community residents, and mental health agency clients) will be conducted to test the proposed theoretical model of rape recovery with women identified as completed or attempted rape victims (N=600). Several hypotheses will be tested to assess the role of social reactions in adjustment to rape using a valid and reliable instrument, the Social Reactions Questionnaire (SRQ), developed by the P1 with prior NIMH small grant funding (Ullman, 2000). In phase 2, women identified from the preliminary survey as more recent victims (within the past year) will be invited to participate in a longitudinal study of recovery from sexual assault (N=100-150). These women will be re-surveyed at a 1 year follow-up interval following their assaults to determine how reactions to disclosure of their experiences, any intervening sexual assaults, alcohol expectancies, coping, and attributions affect PTSD symptom severity and subsequent drinking problems. In phase 3, multivariate analyses of correlates of mental health service seeking will be conducted in the cross-sectional sample. A subset of victims (10 percent) completing the initial mail survey will be interviewed (N=60) regarding their experiences with mental health providers (including their alcohol-related problems) in order to better understand barriers to help seeking, given sexual assault victims' low rate of mental health service seeking.
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