Prevalence and correlates of service utilization and help seeking in a national college sample of female rape victims☆
Introduction
Data from epidemiological studies published over the last two decades suggest that a high percentage of adults with mental health disorders do not utilize mental health services (Narrow et al., 1993, Wang et al., 2005). A similar pattern has been found among rape victims, despite the fact that sexual assault is associated with increased risk of psychiatric disorder (Ullman, 2007).
Although researchers estimate that as many as 3% of college women are sexually assaulted on campus each academic year (Fisher, Cullen, & Turner, 2002), no studies have examined correlates of post-assault help seeking behavior in a national sample of college women. Investigations of this nature are important because: (a) women ages 18–34, which covers the average age of college students, are at higher risk of sexual assault than women from other age groups (Kilpatrick, Edmunds, & Seymour, 1992), (b) college women are less likely to report sexual assault to authorities than women in the general population; this may be because victimized college women report high rates of alcohol-facilitated rape which is associated with reduced likelihood of disclosure to authorities (Kilpatrick et al., 1992, Fisher et al., 2003), and (c) educational attainment is associated with higher likelihood of help seeking (Coker, Derrick, Lumpkin, Aldrich, & Oldendick, 2000) and therefore accurate estimates of forms of help seeking behavior in college students has the potential to inform policy and practice at the national level.
The present study examined prevalence of distinct categories of help seeking behavior using a national college sample of female rape victims. We also examined demographic, rape history, incident characteristics, psychopathology, and substance abuse variables in relation to formal help seeking.
Section snippets
Participants
The list sample for college women was purchased from the American Student List (ASL). Respondents were stratified by region of the country, randomly selected, then released to be dialed via random digit dial methodology in proportion to the national census representation of college women. In 2006, 2000 interviews were conducted via telephone by a national surveying firm, SRBI (Schulman, Ronca, Bucuvalas, Incorporated). Of these women, those endorsing history of at least one rape experience were
Results
Sample characteristics for the subsample of rape victims extracted from the national sample are described in Table 1. More than half of the sample endorsed lifetime help seeking (52%). Regarding specific types of help sought, the most common form of help seeking was from a mental health specialist (93%). The next common type of help seeking was from a medical doctor (48%), followed by religious counsel (14%).
None of the demographic characteristics (age, race/ethnicity, year in school, income)
Discussion
This study discovered relatively high rates of help seeking (52%) among a national sample of undergraduate female rape victims, similar to rates among a comparable community sample (4). Interestingly, 93% of help-seekers sought help from a mental health specialist, a rate much higher than that within the community (54%) (4), perhaps reflecting higher family income and education levels, greater access to mental health care, and lower levels of stigma related to mental health treatment among this
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2019, Child Abuse and NeglectCitation Excerpt :A recent meta-analysis conducted by Wincentak et al. (2017) including 101 studies reveals that 20% of adolescents report being victims of physical DV and 9% of sexual DV. Help-seeking poses important challenges for adolescents and emerging adults when they experience sexual forms of DV in their romantic relationships and the specific challenges of sexual DV remain poorly investigated (Amstadter et al., 2010; Hayes-Smith & Levett, 2010; Wu, Button, Smolter, & Poteyeva, 2013). Among the few studies that have focused on help-seeking among sexual DV victims, one study reported that youth victims of psychological and physical DV were more likely to seek psychological help than victims of sexual DV (Próspero & Vohra-Gupta, 2008).
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Note: This research was supported by National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Grant #2005-WG-BX-0006. Views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of NIJ. Dr. Amstadter is supported by NIMH Grant MH083469. Dr. Resnick is supported by NIDA Grant R01DA023099.