Wilson Publishes, Presents Paper on Rape Acknowledgment

Laura Wilson, assistant professor of psychology, has published a paper with colleagues from the University of Central Florida and Virginia Tech. Dr. Wilson, along with Drs. Newins and White, wrote a paper about how the way rape survivors conceptualize the incident impacts their functioning. This process is called rape acknowledgment. Up to this point, researchers have primarily focused on how the label the survivor uses to conceptualize the incident explains depression and posttraumatic stress disorder, without taking other factors into account. The findings of this more recent study suggest that the label matters in the context of the survivor’s beliefs about sexual victimization. The paper, “The impact of rape acknowledgment on survivor outcomes: The moderating effects of rape myth acceptance,” was recently published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology. Dr. Wilson also presented the study with Dr. Newins at the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies conference in Chicago this month. They presented as part of a symposium they arranged including esteemed colleagues from Duke University School of Medicine, East Carolina University, and University of New Mexico.