Is There Harm in Asking? Relative Distress and Cost-Benefit of Sexual Assault-Focused Research Participation Among College-Aged Women

Abstract

Given concerns about possible “retraumatization” among individuals who participate in research examining the impact of sexual assault (SA), this study explored college student perceptions of participation in a longitudinal SA-focused study. Participants (N = 124) were college women who had (21%) or had not (79%) experienced SA in the past 12 months. At each of five timepoints (baseline through 12-month follow-up), they reported sexual trauma history and trauma-related psychopathology, completed a written narrative of their SA (if endorsed), and answered three questions about distress and cost-benefit of their participation. At baseline, 83.1% of women rated completing the SA-related surveys as neutral or less distressing than anticipated, 95.2% rated it as somewhat more (than neutral) or very important for psychologists to ask about SA, and 93.5% endorsed it as a somewhat good or very good idea to ask SA-related questions in psychology research. No significant differences emerged between women who endorsed SA versus no SA (all ps > .05). Similar patterns emerged at each timepoint. Contrary to popular belief, most participants, even those who experienced SA, found participating in SA-focused to be less distressing than anticipated and highly important. Findings replicate prior research and may help better inform institutional decision-makers who impact the implementation of SA-focused research.