Have you talked about it? A phenomenological approach to deaf women's lived experience of sexual assault disclosure
ID: | 3330 | |
Status: | Completed | |
Start date: | January | 2017 |
End Date: | January | 2018 |
Description
Deaf women experience sexual assault at a significantly higher rate than the general hearing population. Yet, within the Deaf community there is a dearth of research regarding disclosure patterns – the act of telling someone about a personal experience of sexual assault. This descriptive phenomenological study seeks to explore the disclosure experiences among three-to-six adult Deaf female survivors following methods established by Giorgi (2009). Semi-structured interviews will be used to gain a rich understanding of the lived disclosure experiences unique to each survivor. Specifically, survivors will be asked to provide detailed descriptions of their experiences receiving reactions from various support providers. These phenomenological methods include understanding the psychological meaning of survivors' experiences of disclosure reactions by understanding the essential and general structures of this phenomenon. It is hoped that results will offer insight into the psychological complexity of the disclosure process in the Deaf community in order to better serve survivors and their support providers in the future.
Principal investigators
- Opsahl, Laura Noelle (Student) • Psychology