Illinois State University ISU ReD: Research and eData Theses and Dissertations 3-29-2019 "They are Supposed to be There for Me": Using Thematic Analysis to Understand Sexual Assault Disclosures in Hispanic Families Alyssa M. Hernandez Illinois State University, alyssaMH827@gmail.com Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.edu/etd Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Hernandez, Alyssa M., ""They are Supposed to be There for Me": Using Thematic Analysis to Understand Sexual Assault Disclosures in Hispanic Families" (2019). Theses and Dissertations.edu/etd/1083 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ISU ReD: Research and eData. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ISU ReD: Research and eData.
For more information, please contact ISUReD@ilstu. “THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THERE FOR ME”: USING THEMATIC ANALYSIS TO UNDERSTAND SEXUAL ASSAULT DISCLOSURES IN HISPANIC FAMILIES Alyssa M. Hernandez 76 Pages The majority of research available on family communication and sexual assault disclosure is almost exclusively focused on Caucasian women (e., Basinger, Wehrman, & McAninch, 2016; Fehler-Cabral & Campbell, 2013; Orchowski, Untied, & Gidycz, 2013; Taylor & Norma, 2012). This is problematic because, of all cultural groups on which studies have been conducted about sexual assault reporting, Hispanics are the least likely to disclose sexual assault, although they are at high risk to experience sexual assault (Castaneda, 2018).
In this study, I aimed to understand how and why survivors of sexual assault chose to disclose their experiences to their Hispanic families. Specifically, I was interested in understanding what factors survivors considered when selecting family members to be confidants, how confidant responses shaped future familial communication about sexual assault, and how/if Hispanic families experienced and managed privacy dilemmas. I conducted seven in-depth interviews with Hispanic survivors of sexual assault who both willingly and unwillingly disclosed their assault to their family. Using thematic analysis, three themes emerged related to factors in confidant selection, confidant responses, and privacy dilemmas.
Implications of the study, limitations, and future research are discussed. KEYWORDS: sexual assault, disclosure, Hispanic, family, communication, communication privacy management “THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THERE FOR ME”: USING THEMATIC ANALYSIS TO UNDERSTAND SEXUAL ASSAULT DISCLOSURES IN HISPANIC FAMILIES ALYSSA M. HERNANDEZ A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE School of Communication ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY 2019 © 2019 Alyssa M. Hernandez “THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THERE FOR ME”: USING THEMATIC ANALYSIS TO UNDERSTAND SEXUAL ASSAULT DISCLOSURES IN HISPANIC FAMILIES ALYSSA M.
HERNANDEZ COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Aimee E. Miller-Ott, Chair Megan Hopper Lindsey Thomas ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my two sisters, Desi and Tanya. I cannot thank you enough for always loving me, supporting me, and having a bottle ready when grad school became so stressful. I would also like to thank my mom, Lisa (Liesl), and my dad, Adiel, because without them I would not exist and subsequently neither would this thesis.
Aimee Miller-Ott, I cannot express how grateful I am to have had your support and guidance through this entire process. Your encouraging emails and reassuring meetings made writing a thesis, dare I say, an enjoyable experience. To my committee members, Dr. Hopper and Dr.
Thomas, your input has been incredibly valuable to both my thesis and to me. Thank you so much for your help. I also want to thank Dr. Thomas’ cats, Widow, Marilyn, and sweet baby Theo, for providing much needed emotional support during my intense spring break writing sessions.
Varallo, I do not know where I would have ended up without your academic and life advice. Thank you for always being a Facebook message away. Rachel Laing and Nick Raes, thank you for being my best friends through grad school and putting up with my endless shenanigans. You two are troopers.
Kiah Wilson, although you were never my roommate, you were always one apartment block away. Katy Biddle, you have been a ray of sunshine in my life and I will always be up for a Pub II trip with you. Finally, a world of thanks goes to my number one girl, my chihuahua Maizy. You are the light of my life and supported me even after I accidentally gave you a concussion.
That’s true love right there. i CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS i CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 3 Research Gaps and Hispanic Communities 4 Role of Media in Perceptions of Hispanics 6 Male Representation and Machismo 7 Communication Privacy Management 9 Three Elements of CPM 10 Family Communication, CPM, and Sexual Assault 11 Choosing a Confidant 13 The Influence of Positive and Negative Responses to Sexual Assault Disclosures 14 Victim Blaming 18 Privacy Dilemmas in Revealing Sexual Assault Information 19 CHAPTER III: METHODS 22 Participants 22 Procedures 23 Data Analysis 24 CHAPTER IV: Results 26 Factors in Confidant Selection 26 Past Talk About Sex and Sexual Assault 27 Cultural Values 30 ii Confidant Responses 33 Positive Responses 34 Negative Responses 36 Control Over Private Information 42 Lack of Rule Negotiation 43 Forced Disclosures 45 CHAPTER V: DISCUSSION 48 Summary of Findings 48 Confidant Selection 49 Confidant Responses 50 Control Over Private Information 53 Theoretical Implications 54 Practical Applications 56 Limitations and Future Research 58 Conclusion 60 REFERENCES 61 APPENDIX A: RESEARCH BOARD RECRUITMENT 69 APPENDIX B: EMAIL RECRUITMENT 70 APPENDIX C: COUNSELING CENTER AND CULTURAL GROUP RECRUITMENT 71 APPENDIX D: FACEBOOK RECRUITMENT POST 72 APPENDIX E: INFORMED CONSENT 73 APPENDIX F: INTERVIEW PROTOCOL 75 iii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION It is estimated that one out of three biological females and one out of six biological males have experienced sexual violence at some point in their lives (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). Modern day campaigns such as the “#MeToo” movement and “Time’s Up” help to raise awareness about the prevalence of sexual assault in society. Through these movements, people advocate for the dismissal of harmful rape narratives and demand cases of assault be taken seriously from the moment people report them (Bogen, Bleiweiss, & Orchowski, 2018).
Unlike other crimes, sexual assault survivors are often required to prove to others that the crime occurred and that they had no role in provoking its occurrence (Ahrens, 2006). Although there seems to be more media coverage and conversations taking place about sexual assault, scholars have a long way to go in understanding the complex effect of assault on communicators. An area that lacks research is how Hispanic families communicate about sexual assault before and after a disclosure takes place. It is unknown how frequently a survivor of sexual assault discloses their experiences to family members, but it is known that Hispanic women are least likely to disclose sexual assault for reasons on which researchers only speculate (Castaneda, 2018).
Research available on family communication and sexual assault almost entirely focuses on Caucasian experiences, demonstrating a need for scholars to study minority experiences. Traditionally speaking, people perceive families to be safe groups to which one should feel comfortable disclosing trauma. However, studies have shown that Hispanic families tend to avoid conversations that are sexual in nature, making sexual assault disclosures nearly impossible (Villar & Concha, 2012). Within Hispanic cultures, topics about sex and sexual assault are taboo.
Since taboo topics are culturally bound, it is important to understand what 1 climate is established within a Hispanic family towards sexual assault which may hopefully lead to more open family communication. In the thesis, I am looking to better understand sexual assault disclosure and Hispanic family communication. Researchers point out that sex and sexuality is engrained in culture and family (Villar & Concha, 2012). The way a family talks about sexual assault prior to a disclosure could impact the way a survivor discloses their experiences to family members.
Similarly, a survivor’s disclosure could play a role in the way a family communicates about sexual assault. With societal attitudes toward sexual assault vastly changing and becoming more sympathetic, it is necessary to understand if Hispanic family attitudes are adjusting or if these conversations are consistently avoided. 2 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE Families often play a large role in the communication patterns people develop (Ahrens, 2006). Communication privacy management theory (CPM) states that privacy orientations emerge from family environments (Petronio, 2002), meaning that families create an individual’s privacy orientation based on the family’s attitudes toward privacy and openness.
Family is the primary agent responsible for teaching children how to manage their own private information (Bridge & Schrodt, 2013). Petronio (2002) states that culture impacts privacy and the rules that surround disclosing private information; family and culture heavily influence if, when, and how a person discloses private information. Families also largely influence the way one communicates, views, and copes with traumatic experiences such as sexual assault (Orchowski & Gidycz, 2013), yet there is little research demonstrating the process of sexual assault disclosure to families or the outcomes of disclosing sexual assault to families. Families play an important role in the process of recovering and healing from trauma.
Lopez-Zeron and Blow (2016) argued that although sorting out the intrapersonal chaos caused by traumatic experiences is essential for healing, trauma is also a relational event that affects the individual survivor’s inner state and their web of close relationships. Positive family support is often central to the survivor’s recovery environment. 581) The way a family responds to a disclosure of sexual assault impacts the person who experienced it and could change the way families communicate entirely. Much of the research available about trauma and families focuses on death and mental health (e., Basinger, Wehrman, & McAninch, 2016; Toller & McBride, 2013).
Because family communication plays a role in coping with sexual assault, it is important to uncover the role that prior communication about sexual assault 3 plays in the way one discloses to a family member, if and how family responses shape the way families communicate, and if and how families’ responses influence a survivor’s relationship with them. This study could produce practical application by uncovering ways that Hispanic families communicate in response to sexual assault disclosures that both aid and hinder a survivor’s coping. This study can also produce practical application by identifying what factors a Hispanic survivor considers before disclosing to a family member. By better understanding what factors play a role in disclosing sexual assault within Hispanic families, it can aid families in having more supportive conversations about family member’s experiences post disclosures.
If family members become more comfortable and competent in talking about assault, survivors may choose to come forward with their experiences more often, likely increasing reporting. In the following review of literature, I provide the CPM theoretical framework that will guide this research, address available research on Hispanic families and sexual assault disclosures, and propose research questions to fill gaps identified in research. Further, this study gives survivors of sexual assault an opportunity to tell their story that can help others in their community while at the same time remaining confidential. Being able to share one’s story can be a cathartic and helpful experience to process trauma (Lopez-Zeron, 2016).
Interviewees who lack family support may find the process of sharing their experiences to be particularly helpful, especially if their family was not willing to listen to their disclosure or believe them. Research Gaps and Hispanic Communities Most research on family communication and sexual assault disclosure is focused almost exclusively on Caucasian women (e., Basinger, Wehrman, & McAninch, 2016; Fehler-Cabral & Campbell, 2013; Orchowski, Untied, & Gidycz, 2013; Puretti & Chesebro, 2015; Taylor & 4 Norma, 2012). This points to a gap in research, which is a focus on racial minorities and their experiences of disclosing sexual assault to family members. In this study, I exclusively sought Hispanic individuals to participate.
The term Hispanic was strategically chosen over other identifying terms such as Chicano or Latinx. The term Hispanic refers to a person who is native of or who descends from any Latin American country (Genial, 2017).