Julia Fitzpatrick ‘23, April Fraser '23 and Assistant Professor of Psychology Anandi Ehman presented research at the Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association (SEPA) in New Orleans, LA in April 2023. Their poster based on directed research was entitled "Uncertain But Not Unaffected: Sexual Assualt Uncertainty & Post-Traumatic Stess Symptoms."
The classification of events as “sexual assault” can be influenced by cultural norms or rape myths. Conflicting definitions of sexual assault and negative reactions to victim disclosure can reinforce victims’ feelings of self-blame and uncertainty about whether their experiences “qualified” as rape, thereby increasing post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). The present study assessed victims’ perceptions of whether their experiences “qualify" as sexual victimization and if those perceptions impacted PTSS. The present study hypothesized: 1) Victim blame will moderate the effect of uncertainty on victims’ symptoms of PTSD, 2) When accounting for victim uncertainty and victim blame, perceived social norms in support of Title IX changes and negative social reactions towards the victim will predict PTSS. A sample of college students from a southeastern university completed measures of sexual violence experience, PTSS, rape myth acceptance (RMA), social reactions to sexual assault disclosure, and awareness and perceived acceptability of Title IX changes. A moderated regression was used to assess the hypotheses. Both the step one and step two models were not significant. When the interaction term was added to the third step of the model, there was not a significant interaction between victim blame and uncertainty. Therefore, the interaction term was removed from the model in keeping with best practices (Aiken & West, 1991). Following the removal of the interaction term, the third step of the model was statistically significant. The overall model significantly predicted PTSS. The majority of variance in PTSD symptoms was predicted by negative social reactions to assault disclosure. Implications were discussed.
Fitzpatrick will pursue a PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis starting in the fall of 2023.
