The Relationship among Type of Disclosure, Social Reaction, Self-Blame, and Empowerment in Heterosexual, Female Adult Sexual Assault Survivors

Alexandra L Kutsor, Purdue University

Abstract

There is little empirical research in the marriage and family therapy (MFT) field that considers the effectiveness of implementing support persons as a tool in the healing process when treating female adult sexual assault survivors, and there is no empirical research that considers empowerment with this population. The present study considered the relationships among disclosure source, social reaction, self-blame, and empowerment to gain insight on the usefulness of including support persons in heterosexual, female adult sexual assault survivors’ therapeutic healing processes. A structural equation model was utilized to analyze the data, which was gathered via an online survey made available through Amazon Mechanical Turk. The present study yielded significant findings. First, although the type of person survivors disclosed to did not have a direct significant relationship with empowerment, higher accounts of negative social reactions and characterological self-blame predicted a lowered sense of empowerment. Second, when survivors disclosed to a formal source, then they were more likely to receive negative reactions. Third, when survivors received more negative reactions, they reported more feelings of characterological and behavior self-blame. The present study adds to the current MFT literature in utilizing empowerment as an outcome variable with the female adult sexual assault population, as well as provides future directions for researchers in the field. Clinical implications for utilizing support persons in therapy with this sensitive population are discussed.

Degree

M.S.

Advisors

Nalbone, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Therapy

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