Psychology of Women Quarterly, 31 (2007), 38–49. Blackwell Publishing, Inc. Printed in the USA. Copyright C  2007 Division 35, American Psychological Association. 0361-6843/07 DECIDING WHOM TO TELL: EXPECTATIONS AND OUTCOMES OF RAPE SURVIVORS’ FIRST DISCLOSURES Courtney E. Ahrens California State University Rebecca Campbell Michigan State University N. Karen Ternier-Thames Chicago School of Professional Psychology Sharon M. Wasco University of Massachusetts–Lowell Tracy Sefl University of Illinois at Chicago In this study, 102 female rape survivors were interviewed regarding their first post-assault disclosure. Qualitative analysis revealed that nearly 75% of first disclosures were to informal support providers and over one third of the disclosures were not initiated by the survivors themselves. Over half of the survivors received positive reactions and less than one third felt the disclosure had a detrimental impact on their recovery. Loglinear analysis suggested that survivors who actively sought help from informal support providers were more likely to receive positive than negative reactions. In contrast, survivors who actively sought help from formal support providers were more likely to receive negative than positive reactions. When disclosure to formal support providers was initiated by the formal support providers themselves, however, survivors received exclusively positive reactions. Implications for future research are discussed. Many survivors of sexual assault disclose their experiences to others in an effort to gain postassault support and as- sistance. Although survivors are less likely to disclose to professionals such as the police or medical personnel (e.g., Bachman, 1998; Fisher, Daigle, Cullen, & Turner, 2003; Ullman & Filipas, 2001a), the majority of survivors do dis- close to informal support providers such as friends and family (e.g., Fisher et al., 2003; Golding, Siegel, Sorenson, Burnam, & Stein, 1989; Ullman, 1996a; Ullman & Filipas, 2001a). Survivors typically reach out to others for support when they believe doing so will help them feel better, pro- vide needed assistance, or result in justice (Bachman, 1993, Courtney E. Ahrens, Department of Psychology, California State University at Long Beach; Rebecca Campbell, Department of Psychology, Michigan State University; N. Karen Ternier-Thames, Department of Psychology, Chicago School of Professional Psy- chology; Sharon M. Wasco, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts–Lowell; Tracy Sefl, Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Chicago. We would like to thank the members of the UIC Women & Vio- lence Project for their assistance in data collection. This research was supported by a grant from the Program for Mental Health Services Research on Women and Gender (National Institute of Mental Health Grant # R24 MH54212-02). Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Courtney Ahrens, Department of Psychology, California State University at Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90840. E-mail: cahrens@csulb.edu 1998; Feldman-Summers & Norris, 1984; Golding et al., 1989). Although most rape survivors receive positive reac- tions when they disclose to others, the impact of negative social reactions can be quite profound. Indeed, negative re- actions have an extremely detrimental impact on recovery whereas positive reactions have little effect (e.g., Ahrens, in press; Campbell et al., 1999; Ullman, 1996b; Ullman & Filipas, 2001b). Taken together, this research implies that most rape sur- vivors turn to informal support providers, are seeking sup- port and assistance, receive positive social reactions, and do not experience negative outcomes from disclosure. What is not clear is how these constructs are related to one an- other. Are rape survivors looking for different types of sup- port from different types of support providers? How do survivors’ expectations of support affect the impact that disclosure has on them, particularly when those expecta- tions are violated? If survivors’ expectations from friends and family are not met, is the impact different from what it would be if survivors’ expectations from formal support providers were not met? These types of questions can only be answered by a study that examines both the decision- making process that precedes disclosure and the outcomes that follow disclosure simultaneously. To date, such a study has not been conducted. To address this gap in the litera- ture, we will first review literature on rape survivors’ rea- sons for disclosing and the impact of social reactions on rape survivors’ recovery. We present a study that builds from these distinct lines of literature to provide a more 38