Social Reactions to Disclosure of Campus Sexual Assault and PTSD Symptoms among Black Female Undergraduates

Abstract

Black women experience worse PTSD symptoms following campus sexual assault (CSA) compared to their White peers (Ullman & Filipas, 2001). They also receive worse reactions from others upon disclosure of the assault, likely due to rape myths/stereotypes (Lewis et al., 2019). Worse reactions upon disclosure of assault could explain more severe PTSD symptoms among this group of students (Berman et al., 2018). In this study, it was found that Black female survivors of campus sexual assault reported less positive social reactions upon disclosure of the assault; however, social reactions did not predict worse PTSD for Black survivors.