Do Survivor and Supporter Perceptions of Supporter Helpfulness and Social Reactions Affect Survivor PTSD Symptoms?

Abstract

Prior studies indicate that sexual assault survivor posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is influenced by the social reactions (e.g., belief and blame) and perceived helpfulness (e.g., empathy, effectiveness) of informal support providers (SPs; i.e., family, friends, and partners). This study examined how SPs’ social reactions and perceived helpfulness impacted female sexual assault survivor PTSD among an ethnically diverse sample of 432 pairs of sexual assault survivors and their SPs. Path models were run separately for survivors and SPs. In the survivor model, SP’s perceived ineffectiveness was significantly related to more unsupportive acknowledgment and turning against reactions, and perceived empathy was significantly related to more unsupportive acknowledgment reactions. Both turning against and unsupportive acknowledgment reactions were related to greater survivor PTSD. In the SP model, greater SP confusion about how to help the survivor was related to marginally less SP unsupportive acknowledgment and more turning against social reactions made to survivors. Greater SP empathy toward the survivor was also related to significantly less SP unsupportive acknowledgment and turning against social reactions. Finally, SP turning against social reactions was related to marginally more survivor PTSD symptoms. Results suggest that longitudinal research is needed to explore further how helping perceptions relate to survivor PTSD from both survivor and SP perspectives to inform informal support network interventions. Interventions to increase empathy toward sexual assault survivors and teach SPs how to avoid responding with negative social reactions are needed.