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.

Keywords

decolonial theory feminist research help-seeking sexual violence

A substantial number of Latinx¹ college women are at risk of having an experience with sexual violence. However, the majority of research on campus sexual violence focuses on European American college women (Author, 2019; Sabina & Ho, 2014) and does not contextualize women’s experiences. Among adult women who identify as Latinx, 35.6% reported experiencing some form of sexual violence during their lifetime (Breiding et al., 2014). Also, Latinx young adults are attending undergraduate institutions in the United States at higher rates than ever before; between 2000 and 2015, Latinx enrollment in colleges and universities increased by 126% (McFarland et al., 2017). In 2017, approximately 55% of Latinx individuals attaining a bachelor’s degree identified as women (U.S. Census Bureau, 2017).

The conflict between educational goals and traditional, cultural gender roles and expectations creates an environment that prevents Latinx college women from seeking help should they experience sexual violence (Romero, 2012). Specifically, Latinx women report feeling torn between the expectations to be a successful college student and a supportive member of their family (Balacacer, 2018; Liang et al., 2017). The women feel a tension between focusing on individual-oriented pursuits such as college education and remaining connected to family members. Also, in the United States, Latinx college women describe how the desire to explore their sexuality conflicts with cultural and religious values focused on maintaining one’s virginity (Raffaelli & Ontai, 2001; Stephens & Thomas, 2011).

With this study, we investigate the tensions that Latinx college women experience when seeking help after sexual assault. We illustrate the conceptual and practical barriers to help-seeking that the women identified. Centering the perspectives of Latinx women on this topic fills a significant gap in research on help-seeking after sexual assault and campus sexual violence response. Most studies on these topics do not include Latinx women. What follows is an overview of research related to campus sexual violence, Latinx women and help-seeking, the purpose of the study, methodology, findings, and a discussion with practice and research recommendations.

Campus Sexual Violence

National rates of campus sexual assault are challenging to determine. There is no consistent measure by which universities determine rates of campus sexual assault nor is there a standard definition of what classifies as sexual violence (Ferdina et al., 2018). However, researchers estimate that 20% of college women and 5% of college men have experienced sexual violence (Anderson & Clement, 2015). Among adult women who identify as Hispanic, 35.6% reported experiencing some form of sexual violence during their lifetime (Breiding et al., 2014). Under Title IX, the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education defines sexual violence as “physical, sexual acts perpetrated against a person’s will or where a person is incapable of giving consent…including rape, sexual assault, sexual battery, sexual abuse, and sexual coercion” (U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, 2017). Cantor et al. (2015) found that less than 28% of incidents of sexual violence among students are reported to the campus authorities each school year. The same study found that only one quarter of students indicated that they are aware of the services available for students who experience campus sexual assault (American Association of University Professors, 2012; Cantor et al., 2015). One reason for this lack of reporting is the prevalence of rape myths. O’Connor and colleagues (2018) found that rape myths, such as victim-blaming and excusing the perpetrator, are still pervasive in undergraduate students’ conception of assault (O’Connor et al., 2018). Blaming the victim often takes the form of suggesting that the violence occurred because the victim was drinking alcohol, dressing provocatively, or flirting (O’Connor et al., 2018). People excuse the perpetrator’s behavior as the result of miscommunication or “misread signals” (O’Connor et al., 2018).

Factors Influencing Reporting of Sexual Violence

Latinx women have lower rates of reporting sexual violence (Cuevas & Sabina, 2010). Researchers have identified a range of factors that may influence the lower rates of reporting for Latinx women. Gender role adherence, acculturation, family relationships, and immigration status appear to be the most significant predictors of whether or not Latinx women report experiencing sexual violence (Adames & Campbell, 2005; Cuevas & Sabina, 2010; Estrada-Martínez et al., 2011; Gonzalez-Guarda et al., 2014). Evidence suggests that, among Latinx women, traditional gender role adherence correlates with a lower likelihood of reporting sexual violence (Adames & Campbell, 2005; Cuevas & Sabina, 2010). This gender adherence includes socialized risk-reduction such as staying close to home or not going out alone. Researchers have found that among Latinx youth that higher quality family relationships moderate the risk of experiencing or perpetrating partner violence (Estrada-Martínez et al., 2011; Gonzalez-Guarda et al., 2014). Decker et al. (2007) found that immigration status was associated with an increased risk of sexual assault revictimization. Relatedly, a substantial body of research indicates that acculturation level is a significant predictor for Latinx women experiencing sexual violence (Gonzalez-Guarda et al., 2014; Sabina et al., 2013; Sabina et al., 2015). Scholars define acculturation as the amount of change to one’s attitudes and behaviors that occur based on contact with another culture (Soriano et al., 2004). Researchers found that Latinx women with high levels of acculturation reported experiencing higher levels of intimate partner violence (including sexual violence), than Latinx women with lower levels of acculturation (Gonzalez-Guarda et al., 2014; Sabina et al., 2013; Sabina et al., 2015). The 2010 Sexual Assault Among Latinas Study (SALAS) suggested that “changing cultural values and roles may create acculturative stress resulting in increased risk for victimization” (Cuevas & Sabina, 2010, p. 17).

Factors Influencing Help-Seeking for Sexual Violence

Research suggests that Latinx women are less likely to seek formal services, after experiencing interpersonal violence, compared to European American and African American women (Lipsky et al., 2006). These reasons are fear of the offender, lack of culturally competent services, distrust toward medical and legal establishments, and feeling shame or fear of feeling shame (Cuevas & Sabina, 2010; Flicker et al., 2011; Messing et al., 2015). Researchers found that higher levels of acculturation are associated with higher rates of sexual victimization and help-seeking behavior for Latinx women (Cuevas & Sabina, 2010; Sabina et al., 2013). First, it is more acceptable to claim or report victimization in U.S. culture. Second, more acculturated women may have a better understanding of the systems and services available to survivors in the United States (Cuevas & Sabina, 2010).

Research shows that for Latinx women who have experienced sexual violence, feeling ashamed was the main reason for not seeking medical attention or informal help through family or friends (Cuevas & Sabina, 2010). Flicker et al. (2011) found that Latinx women are equally likely to disclose their abuse to their families but less likely than European American women to seek help from informal structures like friends or mentors. The researchers attribute this difference to traditional Latinx values, which focus on protecting the family from shame. Reyes (2016) describes this shame as being related to the sexual disembodiment of young, Latinx women in families that maintain traditional values. Traditional families perceive women as beings without sexual desire and expect them to preserve their virginity, even the use of tampons is considered improper (Reyes, 2016).

Researchers focusing on Latinx women and help-seeking have primarily conducted survey research. This study seeks to build on this research by using a critical feminist methodology that illustrates what Latinx college women perceive as barriers to help-seeking and how these barriers operate in the family and community context. These perceptions influence help-seeking within a college campus context.

Decolonial Epistemology and Concepts

Decolonial epistemology is a way of generating knowledge that views our lived reality through the lens of colonization (Lugones, 2010; Mignolo, 2012; Quijano, 2000). Colonization was the civilizing mission of Western Europe’s explorations through the Americas (and beyond) during the 16th–19th centuries (Caron & Ou Jin Lee, 2019; Lugones, 2010). The purpose of colonization was to expand the ideological and economic reach of Western Europe through the enslavement and commodification of indigenous communities throughout the global south (Lugones, 2010; Mignolo, 2012; Quijano, 2000). A primary instrument the European settlers used to achieve this colonization was Christianity, and in Latin America, it was the Catholic Church (Lugones, 2010). This colonization impacted the social construction of gender and sexuality for Latin America. When Iberian conquerors colonized the Americas, they used war-like violence and imposed a patriarchal gender structure, developed by the Catholic Church, on to the indigenous peoples. The Iberian, Catholic colonization of gender created binaries that did not previously exist for the indigenous peoples of the Americas, marianismo/machismo, individualism/collectivism, and human/subhuman, to name a few (Dei & Jaimungal, 2018; Lugones, 2010).

Purpose of the Study

With this study, we seek to advance research focused on the experiences of Latinx women and barriers the women experience in seeking help for sexual assault. In particular, this study explores the experiences of Latinx college women, between the ages of 18 and 24 years, who are attending a Hispanic-serving institution in the southwestern United States. The research question guiding this study is “What do Latinx college women perceive as barriers to seeking help should they experience sexual violence?”

Method

We used critical feminist theory to support the design of this study (Anderson-Nathe et al., 2013; Charmaz, 2017). In using this paradigm, we sought to understand the intersections between gender and sexual norms, being a college student and identifying as a Latinx woman. We also applied the work of Ortega (2006) on white feminism as lovingly, knowingly ignorant to the perceptions and experiences of minority women. We integrated Ortega’s (2006) suggestions into our work by conducting two rounds of data collection.

Data Collection

The first and third authors conducted five focus groups (N = 35). Demographics from the focus groups are as follows: 8 students identified as men,² 27 identified as women, no students identified as genderqueer, nonbinary, or transgender. The 35 students were between the ages of 18 and 24 years and undergraduate students, with 60% of the students identifying as first-year freshmen. Approximately one half of the students are first-generation U.S. citizens with one or both parents having immigrated from Mexico. The other half of the students are at least second-generation U.S. citizens.

To saturate the categories that emerged from the first round of data analysis, the first author engaged in theoretical sampling (Charmaz, 2014). The author conducted four individual interviews with Latinx women students to see whether the same categories emerged in the subsequent interview data. The four interviewees shared stories in alignment with the focus group data. Theoretical sampling is one way we incorporated Ortega’s (2006) call for checking and questioning the knowledge claims we made from the data.

Data Analysis

For the data analysis, the research team used critical grounded theory methods as described by Charmaz (2014, 2017). The second author gained immersion in the data by transcribing the interviews, and the first author read the transcripts multiple times. Second, we engaged in line-by-line coding of the data, which involved generating gerunds to summarize the essence of a line of text. Third, we joined in focused coding, which consisted of collaboratively determining and applying focused codes that represented patterns that emerged from the line-by-line codes. For the final step, the first author wrote memos as a method of exploring the concepts, processes, and strategies embedded in the focused codes. Through this memo writing, the first author watched one primary category emerge (avoiding shame) and two subcategories (prioritizing the family and prizing virginity). To execute the critical layer of this data analysis, we considered how the constructions of gender, ethnicity, and sexuality impacted the participants in this study. The third author assisted with data collection and provided critical feedback on multiple versions of the manuscript, helping us deepen our analysis and connect the results to practice methods that are culturally relevant. Further, all of the authors attended to praxis by continuously asking how we can use the research findings to support the empowerment of the study participants. Specifically, we focused on how the results can inform the development of culturally relevant approaches to help-seeking for survivors of sexual violence.

Researcher Reflexivity

The first author identifies as a queer, feminist, European American woman and as a survivor of sexual violence:

My experiences with campus sexual violence have generated a passion for me to work on this issue. Through my research and teaching, I aim to raise the critical consciousness of the research participants, my students, and the broader community—regarding how we all unintentionally participate in rape culture—and how we can intentionally transform rape culture. With this research, my goals are to a) generate findings that are grounded in the perceptions and experiences of the study participants and b) use these findings to create practical recommendations for how my home university could create help-seeking processes that resonate with our student body.

The second author identifies as a feminist, European American woman and as an ally to survivors of sexual violence:

As a student at my university, this issue is highly relevant to my academic community. Through my educational experiences at my undergraduate institution and in my master’s program—including instruction from the first author—I have become more conscious of the prevalence of sexual violence on college campuses and the specific risk and preventative factors associated with various identities. With awareness of the limitations of my lens, I have attempted to focus on the data in the context of the interviewees’ experience and culture. I hope to bring a student perspective to the authorship of this paper and contribute to research that could influence system-level change to protect and support survivors in a culturally congruent manner.”

The third author identifies as a Latinx woman, feminist, and mental health-care provider:

I am exposed daily to the consequences and challenges some individuals encounter after experiencing sexual violence. In my work as a clinician, supervisor, and college counseling center director, I hope to help students find healing and recovery after surviving trauma. I hope to use the scholarship in this area to guide college counseling center efforts to destigmatize mental health and survivorship, remove barriers help-seeking among survivors of color, and provide culturally competent and informed treatment.

Findings

“So, admitting to an attack or violence towards you might come with shame to your family or your immediate network of people around you” (Alice). This quotation by Alice captures the essence of this overarching category that emerged from the data analysis: avoiding shame. This primary category refers to the main reason students said they would not seek help after experiencing sexual violence. Students stated that if they sought help for managing the aftereffects of sexual violence, they feared that their family or the broader community would blame them for the assault. The students said that their families or the greater community taught them that a woman could avoid being victimized by sexual violence. If a woman behaves the way her parents and the Catholic Church prepared her to behave, then she would not be victimized by a man (or men). Thus, many students reported that if they disclose the assault, then the broader community will generate chisme (gossip) about the family, and they will feel ashamed that their daughter put herself in a high-risk situation. Also, two subcategories emerged from the data analysis: (a) prioritizing the family and (b) prizing virginity. These subcategories constitute what students described as the strategies they use to avoid creating shame for themselves and their families.

Prioritizing the Family

The Latinx students in our study described choosing to do what is best for the family over what is best for an individual family member. The students used these strategies as a way to protect the family from shame should they experience sexual violence. This category aligns with concepts of respeto (Crockett et al., 2007; Liang et al., 2017; Lugones, 2010), familismo (Comas-Diáz, 2006; Cortes, 1995; Liang et al., 2017; Moya Salas, 2007), and chisme (Skolnik et al., 2012). We describe each of these below.

The cultural value of respeto (respect) emphasizes the importance of maintaining hierarchical structures based on age, gender, and social status (Crockett et al., 2007; Liang et al., 2017; Lugones, 2010). Due to their place in the hierarchical familial and societal structure, Latinx college students may not challenge or disagree with family or community members to uphold respect and maintain relationships (Liang et al., 2017).

Familismo (familism), the feelings of loyalty and reciprocity among family members, aligns with honoring the family by staying out of trouble. Familismo includes protecting the family from the repercussions that come from behaviors that the public could interpret as dishonorable (Comas-Diáz, 2006; Cortes, 1995). Familismo stresses the importance of family as a part of an individual’s identity and a commitment to the well-being of the family (Liang et al., 2017; Moya Salas, 2007).

Chisme (gossip) is a cultural norm that can manifest as gossip over change—real or perceived—in hierarchical structures or autonomy within the family system (Skolnik et al., 2012). Research has shown that the social harm associated with being an object of chisme to have a more significant impact on women than on men (Skolnik et al., 2012). As such, women tend to take more preventative action to avoid being subject to chisme than men (Skolnik et al., 2012).

Participants described the need for families to maintain a unified, dignified front to the greater community. Jessica, a focus group member, described concerns about how the community will perceive the family if they learn that a family member has experienced sexual assault as a barrier to help-seeking:

Hispanics are like; they don’t want other people knowing about…their family’s business because it looks bad on their family. I think that’s a big thing that they don’t want other people to be referring to the family, “Oh they’re the family with the this, this and this history.” So, I think that’s a big thing. They don’t want other people to be involved if they don’t have to be. They say that we can take care of this ourselves in our way, not through your way, you knowing about it. (Jessica)

Desiree, a participant in the focus group with Jessica, agreed with Jessica’s perception:

She [the survivor] doesn’t need professional help; she has her family to support her whatever happens. And that we’re really close, we don’t need any other help. Or we don’t need anybody else knowing our business. (Desiree)

These two students described strategies and the associated assumptions involved with keeping family problems contained within the family. The objective is to prevent the community from generating negative gossip or chisme about the family (Skolnik et al., 2012).

One strategy for preventing chisme is to keep shameful information (disclosure about sexual assault) hidden from people both inside and outside the family. As Martina shared:

Well, if they [the family] don’t confront it, they don’t have to act like something happened. So, they don’t have to confront the victim. They don’t have to relive it. They don’t have to…be the victim to their family and friends. They probably feel like it does change them to everyone else. Like people are gonna be talking behind their back or maybe even blaming them, as the victim. (Martina)

People “outside” the family include counselors, therapists, health care providers, and police officers, and other service professionals who address cases of sexual violence in the contemporary U.S. context. Martina is describing how seeking help can amplify the shame of the survivor because the incident may become public knowledge, which could generate chisme and victim-blaming. The alternative would be to not disclose the violence and suffer in silence.

Jessica, Desiree, and Martina asserted that their families block outsiders from involvement with family problems. The family intends to protect the family, the survivor, and possibly the perpetrator (particularly if the person who perpetrated the violence is a family member). Also, directly addressing the issue may call into question deeply held beliefs about gender and sexuality and how those beliefs perpetuate victim-blaming (Comas-Díaz, 2006; Dei & Jaimungal, 2018; Elenes, 2014; Fuchsel et al., 2012; Moya Salas, 2007).

Like other participants, Kayla emphasized the importance of family dignity. Kayla elaborated on how avoiding shame perpetuates the family practice of keeping involvement with the assault (and the survivor) within the family:

I feel like Hispanic culture or like Latino culture is very prideful, so they look at that [sexual assault] as an embarrassment to the family. So, they encourage you to keep it yourself and get through it on your own. They don’t want society to know. Like, I just think there’s so much closed to depression, they don’t acknowledge it’s a real thing. So, they don’t want to say it out loud. Just…keeping it in the family allows…for the rest of the people not to know that’s going on. They can keep that image because Latina people want to keep together, like you keep the dirty clothes at home. You wash the dirty clothes at home.

Kayla demonstrated how maintaining family pride shapes help-seeking behavior. Going outside of the family for help risks illustrating the family as weak or incapable of caring for the family member. Keeping the assault in the family prevents outsiders from knowing about individual family members’ weaknesses. This effort maintains the image of the family as cohesive and unified, which is the priority. This work also acts as protection from the potentially damaging and intrusive influence of the state, as illustrated below.

I know if she was anywhere where I grew up, then her family’s gonna get involved and probably use their own ways to deal with it, not any of the police. ‘Cause back home it’s it’s more difficult for people to call the police. ‘Cause all of them feel that they will get in trouble with the law, based on their status of immigration. Also, it’s more of a family thing. ‘Cause a lot of people believe in shame when it comes to sexual assault. So, I feel like they’d handle it as a family matter, where they take care of it. Or they confront the family [of the accused individual], or they’d have to handle it, but it’s within house. They’re not going to bring any government official or any police into it. (Andrea)

Andrea conveys how she believes the families in her home community would attend to the assault. The family would use strategies grounded in the family culture to address the attack. These strategies include avoiding police involvement. Avoidance is due to the threat that involving the law can cause for some families and the greater community. Allowing police involvement could expose the family and put them at risk of censure from the state (fines, jail time, or deportation) (Núñez, 2018). This oversight includes persons pulled over for traffic stops³ or victims and witnesses of crime questioned by police (Núñez, 2018). This political reality means that if someone seeks formal help after experiencing sexual assault, both the person who someone victimized and the person who perpetrated the crime could be questioned about their immigration status by local police. For the students, prioritizing the family has multilevel implications that supersede what helping professionals may view as optimal care for survivors.

Gabriella shared how Latinx families address mental health concerns related to experiencing sexual assault:

That it’s [Latinx culture] very much family-oriented. So, when we go through things we go to our family to get through it, and mental health is something that is very important…but I feel like growing up…it’s not very serious, you can get over it, it’s going to be fine. Like you don’t need to go to a therapist, you don’t need to seek a counselor, that’s excessive, that is just something you can get over with time. Because…people feel that about mental disorders, like anxiety and depression. It’s like, “Oh, you can get over it; it’s not a real thing.” (Gabriella)

Gabriella is implying that when an individual suffers, it becomes the family’s duty to address the suffering. The family knows how to best care for the survivor because they have always known them, therefore how could an outsider know what is best? According to this view, counseling provided by a stranger would be ineffective. Another implicit belief is that if an individual remains close to the family (both geographically and emotionally), it increases the family’s capability to address these individual ailments. An emotional support feedback loop develops from the “give and take” that occurs between the individual respecting the role a family plays in their life.

Our results illustrate reasons young women who identify as Latinx would choose not to seek help should someone perpetrate sexual violence against them. Conceptually, the young women feel a duty to suffer in silence because the silence will protect the family from the shame. The women said they think that their family members or the community would blame the victim for the assault. Also, seeking help could generate social and legal trouble for the family. The women talked about the potential repercussions of seeking help from social service organizations. That effort might involve the state in scrutinizing the legal statuses of family members. Given these findings, we believe it is understandable that these young women would submerge their individual needs for help. To avoid the social shame that could come with help-seeking and to prevent state sanctions, it may be less painful to deal with the trauma alone.

Prizing Virginity

The notion of prizing virginity was a key theme in our study, which corresponded with the concept of marianismo (Dei & Jaimungal, 2018; Elenes, 2014; Fuchsel et al., 2012; Liang et al., 2017). The Latinx students in our study described how their home communities hold women to a different sexual standard than men. The students believed that this standard leads a woman to feel shame when she loses her virginity. Further, the community punishes the woman by devaluing her for no longer being a virgin. The students perceived virginity as a critical mechanism that a community can use to (a) keep a woman safe from the dangers of sexual activity, (b) determine her level of obedience to the sexual values of the community, and (c) to blame the woman for the assault, regardless of the circumstances. Two concepts illuminate how these mechanisms operate through a gender binary and influence help-seeking for sexual assault: marianismo and machismo. We elaborate on each of these below.

The value of marianismo is the expectation of women to emulate characteristics of the Virgin Mary through complete self-sacrifice for the family, sometimes described as a form of martyrdom (Comas-Díaz, 2006; Moya Salas, 2007). Marianismo, the embodiment of the La Virgen, requires Latinx women to engage in self-sacrifice, submission, and respectful behavior toward family and community members, often through cooking, cleaning, and child-rearing (Dei & Jaimungal, 2018; Elenes, 2014; Fuchsel et al., 2012; Liang et al., 2017).

Machismo is the masculine counterpoint to marianismo. Eight hundred years of war between Christians and Muslims shaped Iberian masculinity (Lugones, 2010; Medina, 2014). This history created a form of masculinity that celebrated conquering through violence. Thus, the Spanish colonization of the Americas included imposing a patriarchal gender system that situated masculinity as performed through violence and hyper heterosexuality and femininity as performed through submission and chastity (Lugones, 2010; Medina, 2014).

For example, Alice described the historical and cultural forces connecting women’s sexuality and virginity with their help-seeking behaviors for sexual violence:

I mean even like people, especially with Hispanic culture where like virginity is very much prized and the woman is kind of held up to a different standard from men, kind of losing that part of you brings a lot of shame since it’s something that’s so prized. You not having it anymore kind of I think devalues you, therefore adds like this cloud of shame…I think the way Catholicism works…it’s very much ingrained in the Hispanic communities all over Latin America and Central America since that was the main religion that conquered and colonized. So, they do have a lot of ideas of guilt and virginity. So that might be why us Latinos/Hispanics, we silence ourselves kind of when it comes to attacks, it’s still very taboo to speak out I guess on that kind of stuff. (Alice)

Alice highlights the relationship between colonization, Catholicism, and virginity (Elenes, 2014). She believes that the values and processes within Catholicism hold women to a different sexual standard than men. Women feel ashamed when they lose their virginity because of these standards. This shame appears to be grounded in an individual, family, and community perception of a woman as having less value because she is no longer a virgin. The family and community see the woman as colonized and conquered, which lowers the perceived value of this woman. These belief systems about virginity prevent young women from seeking help should someone sexually assault them.

Angelina further illuminates how notions of virginity shape her discomfort with disclosing sex-related topics with her mother:

My mom would always say when I was younger, “You guys get pregnant, you’re going to figure something out. I’m not going to take care of your child, it’s all on you,” so that was scary. So, when I lost my virginity, I was scared, I was like, “I hope my mom never finds out.” I’m not young, but still, I don’t want her to find out. So, thinking like you get raped and you get pregnant from somebody it’s like how do you say that? So, you’d rather not, and then try to figure things out on your own. (Angelina)

Angelina describes how pregnancy is a sure way of determining a woman’s virginity status. Pregnancy through rape not only dismantles a girl’s importance as a virgin but also amplifies how the community shames the girl. This amplified shame would prevent the girl from seeking help for the assault. Angelina links rape and pregnancy to losing the respect of her mother. In other words, Angelina would be reluctant to seek help for sexual assault due to the potential outcome, dis-ownership by her mother. Angelina asserts that she would prefer to figure things out on her own.

Lucia expressed fear of being disowned by her mother as a repercussion for losing her virginity:

Uh, my family is Catholic. So, my mom was very strict on me when I was very young. She still is but…She was so strict on like it’s very important to wait until to marriage, and don’t be going around and doing stuff you’re not supposed to do. And, of course, obedient and I would listen and try my best to obey, but at the same time, it was kind of hard…my mom doesn’t know because I know how important that is, it’s—it’s just something, something so high value to her. And, if something is like revealed or I tell her, I feel like she would disown me because of that….(Lucia)

Lucia describes her mother as having strict boundaries around what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Sexual activity is a significant boundary violation for Lucia’s mother, such that Lucia would fear dis-ownership should she reveal that she is no longer a virgin. It would likely be difficult for Lucia to divulge an experience with sexual violence to her mother, given this strong taboo around sexuality.

Andrea describes a gendered view of sexuality she perceives within her home community:

There’s a big saying in the Hispanic community that mothers love their sons but raise their daughters. So that’s a really big thing for us because they’re boys—they’re just kind of already a set path for the boys, but boys can mess up. They can have as many girls as they want. They can mess up, they can stay out late, and that’s just what boys are supposed to do. And then for girls, it’s, “You better be home at this time, ‘cause if you’re in the streets past a certain time, people are going to start thinking bad about you.” And so, I guess…I didn’t want to be one of those girls. So I followed the rules, and I did everything right because I didn’t want to be compared to one of those girls. (Andrea)

Andrea is articulating her perceptions about gender values related to sexuality within her home community. Andrea describes believing that the community gives sexual freedom to boys and men. Our earlier discussion of machismo offers a way of understanding and/or interpreting these beliefs. Namely, they reflect a colonized way of performing masculinity (Lugones, 2010; Medina, 2014). Within that freedom, boys are allowed to make mistakes related to sex and sexuality. However, the community punishes girls (through social sanctions) for engaging in behaviors the community perceives as sexually available. Andrea mentions her fear of being “compared to one of those girls.” The community judges a girl for behaving in a way that is not virginal (e.g., putting herself at risk for encounters with promiscuous men). Thus, the community accuses the girl of inviting sexual assault. The concept of marianismo is useful for understanding why the community believes that women invite men to assault them (Dei & Jaimungal, 2018; Elenes, 2014; Fuchsel et al., 2012; Liang et al., 2017). Catholic colonizers asserted sexual control over indigenous women by conquering women who are open with their sexuality and, thus, deserve violence (Dei & Jaimungal, 2018; Elenes, 2014). So, if someone assaults a woman, it is the woman’s fault for putting herself at risk. The gender counterpoint to blaming a woman for the assault is excusing men for their sexual aggression. If women are the gatekeepers of sexuality, then a sexual transgression like rape is the woman’s fault. That stance clears the male perpetrator from any wrongdoing.

Taken together, these examples illustrate how the community expects women to carry the responsibility for what happens to their bodies, including sexual assault. Thus, disclosing sexual victimization would likely result in victim-blaming from the family or community. This victim-blaming may feel much worse than handling the aftereffects of the assault alone. Colonial gender values perpetuate victim-blaming due to the strong emphasis the Iberian Catholic church placed on women’s chastity (Elenes, 2014). From a critical feminist perspective, these young women articulated a clear relationship between barriers to help-seeking for sexual assault, prizing virginity, and avoiding shame. The concept of marianismo provides a lens through which we can understand the colonized gender values internalized by the women. These values emphasize maintaining one’s virginity at all costs. Also, as with the previous category, submerging individual needs for the sake of the collective (the family and community) is how a young woman protects herself and her family from shame. This protection means that a survivor of sexual violence may not seek help following the assault.

Counterperspectives

To create a nuanced understanding of how the women in this study perceive barriers to help-seeking, we would like to provide an overview of perspectives that countered the categories that formed our findings. First, Taylor talked about the cost of health care as the primary barrier to seeking help after experiencing sexual violence:

I think having the actual money to…seek help…whether it’s going to the emergency room trying to get DNA swab…in an ambulance or cop car. It all costs. Trying to do counseling…it’s all money and if you don’t have good insurance or you don’t have insurance then you’re like well I can’t afford it, there’s nothing I can do. So that’s a big, big barrier here in the United States.

Health care costs are a critical factor in determining how to seek help after experiencing sexual violence (Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault, n.d.). While Taylor was the only person in the study to mention this topic, this line of thinking is worthy of further investigation.

Two of the study participants stated that they would feel comfortable going to their families if they or a friend experienced sexual assault. Isabella comments:

I feel like me, myself, I may be a little more progressive than that and that I feel like it’s okay to talk to other people about that. So I would, if it was somebody else that I needed to help like I said previously I would probably encourage them to go speak to somebody who studied that and helping that and stuff like that.

Along those lines, Jess reports,

I’ll tell my dad and let him know hey I need professional help, like it’s not working out for me. I still have nightmares every night…if I did speak up and tell my dad he will…give me the professional help I need.

While most of the participants said they feared a negative reaction from their family or community, two of the participants said they would feel comfortable asking for formal help. Investigating these counterperspectives is another way of checking and questioning the diverse perspectives within a given community (Ortega, 2006).

Discussion

With this study, we sought to understand how Latinx college women perceive barriers to help-seeking for sexual assault. We used decolonial epistemology and a critical feminist lens to interpret the findings. Through this lens, we saw connections between the way the women described barriers to help-seeking and the historical colonization of gender in Latin America. The students described values and practices that could hinder a survivor of sexual assault from disclosing the assault and seeking help from a family member or a helping professional. Concepts that decolonial scholars have identified as techniques colonizers used to reshape gender politics for Native Americans aided us in our interpretation of the data (Elenes, 2014; Lugones, 2010).

Our research builds on previous research by intersecting areas of scholarship that have previously been separate. We focused on a group of college students who are underrepresented in research on campus sexual assault, Latinx college women. Then we used a decolonial, critical feminist epistemology to interpret the categories that emerged from the data analysis. Adding this lens provided contextual insights into help-seeking decisions. The main barrier the students identified is the desire to avoid shame, and the students avoided shame by prioritizing the family and prizing virginity.

The students described strategies they internalized to maintain family cohesion, demonstrate respect for family traditions, and find a way to have status within the greater community. The students also described how disclosing that they have experienced sexual assault to their family or professionals outside the family could create trouble for the family, either by generating shame within the family or through punitive involvement from the state. The students also described how adherence to traditional gender norms act as a barrier to seeking help (Cuevas & Sabina, 2010; Dei & Jaimungal, 2018; Elenes, 2014; Flicker et al., 2011; Fuchsel et al., 2012). The students in this study perceived the social costs of losing one’s virgin status (shame, loss of social standing) as higher than the costs that could come with disclosing an experience with sexual assault (health and well-being).

Our findings have implications for three levels of social work practice. At the microlevel, practitioners can work with Latinx-identified women and their families to break down the binary between meeting individual needs versus family needs. Connecting women with helping professionals who have a similar cultural background to them would help the student-survivor to make sense of the seemingly dichotomous choices they have to navigate. At the mezzo-level, community practitioners could organize the development of promotora programs. Promotora programs involve training community members on how to provide emotional and practical support to members of their community who have specific health-related needs. A growing body of research demonstrates the positive impact that promotora programs have in response to the social determinants of health (Albarran et al., 2014; Moya et al., 2014; Serrata et al., 2016). These studies show that promotora programs are particularly well received within Latinx communities due to a history of abuse from formal helping systems. Also, a study by Opara et al. (2019) presents findings that imply that implementing family-based interventions in the community could bolster the resilience of minority girls. Given these implications, it is possible that a family-based intervention focused on promoting parent–child communication about sexuality-related topics could address some of the barriers to help-seeking identified by the women who participated in this study.

At the organizational and legislative levels, leaders, decision makers, and policymakers need to recognize that a European American way of responding to sexual violence is not relevant to everyone who lives in the United States. These groups need to consider how current responses to sexual violence may perpetuate the inequity that made the violence acceptable in the first place. Leaders, decision makers, and policymakers need to reflect on how well their efforts center the most marginalized constituents in the communities they serve.

Future research aligned with this study could move in multiple directions. One direction could be to seek a deeper understanding of how Latinx women experience barriers to help-seeking for sexual violence. Instead of focusing solely on Latinx college students, it would be informative to examine whether Latinx women who navigate a diverse range of social and professional spaces (e.g., community centers, church groups, hair salons) experience similar tensions. For example, a participatory action research project with Latinx women could provide a deeper understanding of how prizing virginity acts as a barrier to help-seeking. This study could focus on how Latinx women experience the relationship between their sexual values, their sexual desires, and how they navigate the tensions between values and desires. This effort would expand on the results of this study by moving research into action by organizing Latinx women with uniting to change sexual violence in their community.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article: The authors received funding the University of Texas San Antonio, Beaks Up Speak Up, Bystander Training initiative to support the transcription of the focus group interviews.

ORCID iD

M. Candace Christensen

Notes

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