Contextualizing Barriers to Help-Seeking After Sexual Violence: A Critical Feminist Study With Latinx College Women

Abstract

This article is a critical feminist study focusing on illustrating how college students who identify as Latinx and women perceive barriers to help-seeking should they experience sexual violence. With this study, we address a gap in the research on help-seeking after sexual assault. The majority of research on this topic focuses on the experiences of European American women and is based on survey data. This study focuses on the perceptions and experiences of Latinx women attending a large, state institution. For data collection, we conducted focus groups and individual interviews. We used grounded theory methods for the data analysis, which resulted in the emergence of one primary category, avoiding shame, and two subcategories (prioritizing the family and prizing virginity). The findings from this study demonstrate how the study participants view prioritizing the family and prizing virginity as barriers to seeking help for sexual assault. These barriers protect the women and their families from experiencing shame. We conclude the article with practice and research implications grounded in the results of this study.

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