Effect of personal disclosure by a rape prevention educator on rape-supportive attitudes

In addition to primary prevention, a healthy community provides opportunities for healing when sexual violence does occur. This project utilized a pretest posttest control group design to look at the effect of educator disclosure of sexual assault trauma on rape-supportive attitudes. The independent variable was educator disclosure of victim status followed by an abuse narrative compared to no disclosure at all with all groups receiving a standardized rape prevention education presentation. Dependent variables included a brief survey to collect participant demographics and exposure to sexual assault as well as the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance - Short Form scale to assess rape-supportive attitudes. Participants represented a convenience sample of diverse students at California State University, Northridge. While this study did not support the association between educator disclosure and rape-supportive attitudes, it does indicate that educator disclosure of victim status is associated with an increase in participant disclosure of victim status. Rape prevention educators and program planners should consider the role of victim-educators in normalizing disclosure. In sum, this study supports the use of survivor-led strategies as a method of increasing disclosure as a potential first step towards healing and accessing services.