Social reactions to disclosure of interpersonal violence and psychopathology: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Social reactions to disclosure of interpersonal violence and psychopathology: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Clin Psychol Rev. 2019 Jun 24;72:101750
Authors: Dworkin ER, Brill CD, Ullman SE
Abstract
Public attention has been increasingly paid to how friends, family members, and others can best support survivors of sexual assault and other forms of violence. The broader social support literature posits that perceiving social support positively is more important to mental health than the degree to which social support is actually received, and that negative interactions with social supporters are more harmful than positive interactions are helpful (potentially because negative reactions violate survivors' expectations of their social supporters). This may be especially true after a crisis, such as interpersonal violence. Thus, this systematic review and meta-analysis summarizes the literature on social reactions to interpersonal violence. Meta-regression analyses were performed on 1871 correlations from 51 studies reflecting the degree to which receiving specific reactions more frequently, or perceiving reactions more positively, was associated with psychopathology. Results indicated that negative social reactions to disclosure-especially reactions involving controlling, distracting, and treating survivors differently-were associated with worse psychopathology, whereas positive social reactions did not appear to be protective. ...

Source: Clinical Psychology Review - June 23, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Dworkin ER, Brill CD, Ullman SE Tags: Clin Psychol Rev Source Type: research