Psychol Trauma. 2025 Dec 8. doi: 10.1037/tra0002083. Online ahead of print.

OBJECTIVE: Most individuals who experience rape do not call it «rape»; rather, they use less stigmatizing terms like «miscommunication,» «bad sex,» or «sexual assault.» When individuals use minimizing terms such as «miscommunication,» this is termed «lack of acknowledgment.» Lack of acknowledgment is associated with risk for repeated victimization and mixed findings regarding mental health symptoms. Empirical data and theory suggests acknowledgment is nuanced and changes over the lifespan; yet most research uses single item dichotomous measures. The goal of this study is to explore response format (dichotomous vs. scaled) and alternate label choice (sexual assault) as ways to optimize measurement and assessment.

METHOD: Participants, N = 439, received three acknowledgment items randomized throughout a larger survey: rape acknowledgement with a dichotomous (yes/no) response format, rape acknowledgment with a scaled response format, and sexual assault acknowledgment with a dichotomous response format.

RESULTS: More participants acknowledged rape on a scaled response format than dichotomous, 20.7% versus 14.3. Participants were 1.4-2.5× more likely to acknowledge sexual assault via the item «I was sexually assaulted» than asking the same question using the word rape. There were gender differences in every analysis, with men 2.8-6.6× less likely to acknowledge rape or sexual assault than women.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that using a scaled response and additional labels like sexual assault may better characterize individuals’ experiences improving the measurement and assessment of sexual assault. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

PubMed:41359583 | DOI:10.1037/tra0002083