Bisexual Women's Recovery After Sexual Assault: Stigma, Negative Social Reactions, and Hazardous Drinking

Bisexual women experience high rates of sexual victimization, receive more negative social reactions from others upon disclosing experiences of sexual assault, and report greater hazardous alcohol use compared to heterosexual and lesbian women. The current study examined how experienced and internalized binegativity and bisexual identity affirmation relate to these disparities among a sample of 130 bisexual women who disclosed their sexual assault experience to at least 1 person. A moderated-mediation model was tested, which specified that experienced binegativity would indirectly relate to increased alcohol use via the impact of negative social reactions to assault disclosure, and that this indirect effect would be moderated by internalized binegativity and identity affirmation. Results indicated greater experienced binegativity predicted greater negative reactions to sexual assault disclosure, which predicted increased hazardous alcohol use. This indirect effect was qualified by internalized binegativity, such that negative social reactions to disclosure predicted hazardous alcohol use only in the context of higher internalized binegativity. Bisexual identity affirmation did not moderate the link between reactions to disclosure and drinking. Findings identify experienced and internalized antibisexual stigma as important targets for intervention efforts and highlight the need for campaigns that reduce binegativity at the individual and population level. Public Significance Statement Bisexual women with histories of sexual assault who encounter negative stereotypes of bisexuality may be more likely to receive unsupportive responses from others when they disclose sexual assault. These unsupportive responses in turn may contribute to increased risk for hazardous alcohol use especially for women who have internalized negative attitudes toward bisexuality to a greater extent. Results highlight the need to reduce antibisexual stereotypes and attitudes in efforts to prevent the detrimental impact of unsupportive responses on alcohol use and to improve bisexual women's wellbeing.