Sexual assault recovery within social contexts: An exploration of undergraduate egocentric social networks.

Abstract

In this study we test how sexual assault survivors on a college campus engage their social networks and how this relational context contributes to psychopathology. We conducted egocentric social network analysis of N = 423 sexual assault survivors and their N = 3,863 network members. We examine how characteristics of the network (e.g., number of other survivors, number of disclosure recipients, presence of unsupportive responders) are associated with posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety symptoms. We also examine what network-, survivor-, and network member-level factors are associated with a network member receiving a sexual assault disclosure and the supportiveness of that network member's response. We found that characteristics of the network were associated with increased psychopathology. Participant and network member factors were associated with both the likelihood that a network member received a disclosure and with the perceived supportiveness of the network member. Finally, survivors with minoritized identities were less likely to disclose to or report supportive responses from network members who did not share their identity (i.e., different race, heterosexual). Findings from this study help to further elucidate the social context through which survivors are accessing support and demonstrate an association between network composition and psychopathology. Further, findings from this study have implications for supporter-driven postsexual assault prevention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).