title: Predicting Nonconsensual Sexual Experience Acknowledgement: Exploring the Roles of Gender Identity, Sexual Aggression Myths, and Psychological Inflexibility
Creators: name: Sandoz, Emily
name: Malvini, Wesley
Publisher: name: OSF Registries
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Other Psychology
subject: Clinical Psychology
subject: Community Psychology
subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences
subject: Psychology
subject: FOS: Psychology
subject: contextual behavioral science
subject: modern myths about sexual aggression
subject: perpetration
subject: psychological flexibility
subject: psychological inflexibility
subject: rape
subject: rape acknowledgment
subject: rape myth
subject: rape myth acceptance
subject: sexual assault
subject: sexual assault acknowledgment
subject: sexual perpetration
subject: sexual victimization
subject: sexual violence
subject: sexual violence acknowledgment
subject: victimization

description: Sexual violence victimization acknowledgment status has been linked to several positive (e.g., Valdespino-Hayden, Walsh, &amp; Lowe, 2022) and negative outcomes (e.g., Layman, Gidycz, &amp; Lynn, 1996) for survivors of sexual violence. Additionally, sexual perpetration acknowledgment may be important to survivor recovery (e.g., Rosenthal &amp; Freyd, 2022) and to preventing reoccurrence (e.g., Ward &amp; Beech, 2016). A person’s willingness or ability to acknowledge their sexual violence experiences may be, at least in part, due to the extent they endorse rape myths (e.g., LeMaire, Oswald, &amp; Russel, 2016; Watters &amp; Yalch, 2023; Peterson &amp; Muehlenhard, 2004; Wilson &amp; White, 2018). Specifically, people who endorse fewer rape myths are more likely to acknowledge their sexual victimization as greater RMA predicts the likelihood of having an unacknowledged status (e.g., Kahn et al., 2003; Littleton et al., 2006; Newins, Wilson, &amp; Kanefsky, 2021; Newins, Wilson, &amp; White, 2018; Nyul et al., 2021; Rousseau, Bergeron, &amp; Ricci, 2020). Furthermore, the high frequency of people who are ambivalent to their victimization may also be the result of more internalized RMA (Lipinski, et al., 2021). However, RMA does not fully account for acknowledgement status (Reed et al., 2019; Wilson &amp; Newins, 2019). As a result, research on possible moderators of the RMA-acknowledgement relationship is necessary (Newins, Wilson, &amp; White, 2018). The primary aim of this study is to advance the literature by examining PF and PI, both of which deal with the relationship between thoughts and feelings and valued behavioral outcomes, as potential moderators of the relationship between sexual violence acknowledgment status and rape myth acceptance. A secondary aim of this study is to address methodological gaps in the literature with respect to the treatment of gender roles relative to sexual violence history and including measurements of ambivalent acknowledgment status and people who may have a dual sexual violence history (i.e., both sexual victimization and perpetration histories). The findings of this study may provide a deeper understanding into the mechanisms that influence the relationship between RMA and sexual violence acknowledgment status. Furthermore, the current study is poised to provide preliminary data on two psychological constructs that may serve as target areas for developing interventions to reduce sexual violence perpetration and provide support to those who have been victimized by it by decreasing RMA, increasing the acknowledgment of sexual violence, and buffering the negative mental health outcomes associated with sexual violence victimization.