# Sexual Assault Recovery Among Sexual Minority Women: A Longitudinal, Multi-Level Study

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 2024 · $757,488

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Sexual minority women (SMW) experience disproportionately high risk of sexual assault (SA) and resulting
mental health sequelae (e.g., depression, PTSD), and these sequelae appear to be especially pronounced
among Black SMW. The main theoretical model of sexual minority mental health disparities (i.e., the minority
stress model) attributes this elevated risk to climate-level factors (e.g., laws, policies, and other conditions that
afford risk or protection to minoritized groups) that vary across municipalities and states. Indeed, evidence
suggests that climate-level factors are associated with risk for PTSD and other disorders in sexual minorities.
However, nearly all studies to date have relied exclusively on assessments of individual-level perceptions of
climate-level factors, and no studies have directly tested these climate-level factors in relation to SMW’s mental
health following SA. This proposal therefore aims to test the minority stress model in relation to SMW’s SA
recovery, including the first-ever direct test of the role of climate-level factors, to inform novel interventions and
policy change efforts. We will recruit a geographically-stratified sample of 2400 SMW aged 18-35
(oversampling Black SMW) to complete self-report surveys every 6 months for 2.5 years, and use publicly-
available population-level data on SMW and Black-relevant policies/laws and community presence to
characterize the climates of participants’ municipalities and states. Aim 1 will involve testing cross-sectional
baseline differences in mental health as a function of history of adolescent/adult SA and climate-level
variables. Because the mental health effects of SA are most evident in the first 6 months following SA, Aims 2
& 3 will focus on the subsample of SMW (approximately 33%) who experience a prospective SA during the
study. Aim 2 will test mediated relationships between climate-level variables, individual-level SMW minority
stress, and rates of mental health symptom change in prospectively-assaulted SMW. Aim 3 will apply a
critically-needed intersectional lens to these questions by testing the relationship of anti-Black climates to rates
of recovery in prospectively-assaulted Black SMW. Combining these self-report and population-level datasets
over multiple years provides an unprecedented opportunity to evaluate how sociopolitical environments
influence health disparities while the disparities are emerging. Given persistent health disparities among SMW,
identifying contributing factors across varying levels of causation is important for public health, both for SMW,
and also for other minoritized groups. We will draw upon our team’s extensive expertise in SMW research and
practice and utilize SMW advisory to carry out this study. Results of this study will immediately inform clinical
interventions to improve recovery from SA among this highly vulnerable group and help to prioritize and justify
public policy changes to reduce this me...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10839475
- **Project number:** 5R01MD017573-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Emily Raphael Dworkin
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $757,488
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-05-09 → 2027-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10839475

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10839475, Sexual Assault Recovery Among Sexual Minority Women: A Longitudinal, Multi-Level Study (5R01MD017573-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10839475. Licensed CC0.

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