Over the past year, Stewart, a doctoral candidate in counseling psychology at Fordham’s Graduate School of Education and an adjunct lecturer in Hunter College’s psychology department, interviewed 16 women who said they had experienced sexual assault during their college years. Stewart wanted to see how the current climate affects the way they’ve processed their own assaults and how they might feel about reporting them. 

“Jen’s work is very timely and poignant,” said her mentor, Fordham professor, and psychologist Joseph G. Ponterotto, Ph.D. “This is an intense, qualitative long-interview study, and the results are riveting.”

The 16 women are anonymous college students across the U.S. who spoke with Stewart through Skype, FaceTime, and, if possible, face-to-face. Their conversations, typically an hour long, are currently being transcribed and analyzed, but conclusions are starting to take shape, said Stewart. 

The work has formed the basis for her dissertation. Before conducting research for the project, she also completed a pilot study, for which she interviewed eight sexual assault survivors about their recovery process.

Last year, she was invited to present her pilot study at the American Psychological Association’s annual convention. In a recent interview, Fordham News spoke with Stewart about what she’s learned so far. 

How is your research different than what’s already out there? 

There’s a lot of research on how sexual assault can psychologically and physically affect victims, but there isn’t much research on what’s happening with sexual assault victims right now. We’re in a time period in American history that’s quite different. We’re talking about sexual assault in a nationwide conversation. It’s in the news, it’s on social media, it’s in the political world. So it’s everywhere you turn, and I was really curious to see how that’s affecting survivors.

Tell me about your research. 

I do qualitative research, which is interview-based. You interview people until you have what’s called a saturation, where the same themes are coming up over and over again. Like, this is coming up so much that we can assume it’s an experience a lot of people are having. When they start to come up in three-quarters of the interviews, you’ve hit saturation. 

You spoke with 16 different women. How did you find them? 

Facebook, actually. I recruited through Facebook college groups. I joined a lot of groups, posted, and people reached out to me. 

What did your interviews focus on? 

How #MeToo has affected how they understood [their assault]  and how their assault has affected how they view #MeToo in general. 

What were the biggest themes from those interviews? 

It seems like sexual assault survivors are in support of #MeToo and feel more comfortable talking to friends and on campus about their experience because there’s this open dialogue that’s been happening. 

But they are significantly less likely to report to authorities in the context of #MeToo after seeing all the people who stood up and reported, but nothing happened. Many of the women I spoke to were like, why would I talk? What’s the point? I’m going to go through all this legal hassle, I’m going to get put in the spotlight and questioned on whether or not what happened was real, and nothing’s going to come of it. So what’s the point of reporting anything, legally?

This April, you’ll be defending your dissertation. Outside of Fordham, what do you hope to do with it? 

Using this to inform policy would be great. I don’t know what that will look like yet. But there’s always an implications section in a dissertation. Now I have this research—cool. What does it mean? Let’s use this to help make a change somewhere.

What are some key takeaway points from your research? Something that could help a loved one dealing with sexual assault?  

Reporting [to authorities]  is really triggering for a lot of people. It can be helpful to recount stories for healing, but usually not immediately after. Imagine going through a car crash and barely surviving and then someone saying, “Can you tell me all about the details of the car crash?” 

Social support is really, really important in terms of how somebody will react after a trauma. A lot of research has shown that positive social support is better [than no social support or negative support]  in terms of reducing PTSD symptoms. [Many pilot-study participants] said the best reactions they had gotten were someone saying, I’m so sorry this happened. I’m here for you if you need me. If you want me to go with you to report, to get some health tests done—whatever you need, I’m here. I think that often times, we hear about sexual assault a lot, but don’t really know what to do when someone tells us it happens. You can’t change that it happened. You can’t fix it. But you can support people, whatever that looks like for every person. That’s something I’d love for more people to know. 

I think we need less victim-blaming and more listening to people when they speak out about things like this. The number of people who falsely report is so small, but those are always the cases that get publicity. Then people are like, oh, well, look at all of these women trying to ruin men’s lives. We need to be more open to hearing what survivors have to say and believing them.

Two years ago, you earned an M.S.Ed. from Fordham, and by 2021, you’ll also have your Ph.D. What’s one of the biggest things that the Graduate School of Education taught you? 

There’s a big focus on multiculturalism and social justice in my program, which I love—and that’s what I chose Fordham for. It’s taught me to be curious about other people’s experiences, to never make assumptions. Even though I’ve worked with a lot of sexual assault trauma, everyone’s experience is different. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The APA division examines psychological theories and their “relevance for scientific and pragmatic applications,” said Morrissey, adding that most members of the group come from academia. She said her main focus will be to “push the boundaries” and nudge the group toward “scholar activism.”

“I see health as the whole being,” said Morrissey, who will be teaching a course on patient-centered care in Fordham’s master’s program in health administration this spring. “We need to ask how we’re designing research and translating it into the field in a way that gives voice to marginalized people.

Part of the way she is hoping to turn theory into action is through collaborations with fields beyond psychology.

She noted that the recent refugee crisis in the U.S., which has split up families impacted people fleeing violence, represents an opportunity for research that will not only help future refugees, but provide important evidence to back up potential policy changes. The effort also brings the society in conversation with nine other APA divisions, she said, as well as many organizations outside APA such as community advocacy groups.

“The exciting thing about this kind of work is that it expands the network beyond the academic community of psychologists so that we’re working closely with social workers, attorneys, ethicists and other APA colleagues,” said Morrissey.

This isn’t to say that practical applications will usurp the group’s mission to advance theory, she said. Rather, immersion in practice—action in the field—will help develop theory.

One example of theoretical work being advanced by the society focuses on dementia, she said. She noted that many healthy people view the experience of those who have dementia as totally negative, an assumption she believes should be challenged.

“We need to engage in more reflective dialogue to do a better job of understanding the lived experience of people with dementia, such as, are they experiencing any joy?” she said. “They may also have a certain type of agency that we don’t understand. We need to challenge assumptions to understand the diversity of their experience better. Here there are also big implications for policy and advocating for a workforce that is equipped to care for people with dementia.”

Another aspect within dementia research that pushes theoretical boundaries is the practice of using personal experience with loved ones as narrative evidence.

“We’re rejecting rigid boundaries between subject and object,” she said, of the practice. This is in contrast to traditional practice, where researchers in psychology generally keep their subjects at arm’s length, lest the work be tainted by familiarity.

“It’s a type of qualitative position to disclose that I have written about my own mom,” she said, referring to Mary Ann Quaranta, Ph.D., former dean of the Graduate School of Social Service, who lived through serious illness near the very end of her life.

“I lived with both my grandmother and my mother through their experience with later-life changes and illness, and I draw on those perspectives in my own research in gerontology,” she said.

“As a qualitative practice, I disclose my positionality, my own experience and perspective, and that’s not viewed as a burden,” she said, though she acknowledges this approach is contested by some.

“It may yield insights about dimensions of the subject’s world that until now remained elusive.

The report, which SAMHSA released today, concludes that, in fact, such therapy can be “devastatingly harmful” to those who undergo its treatment.

SAMHSA and the American Psychological Association (APA) convened a panel of advisers in July to examine the scientific and clinical data behind conversion, or reparative, therapy—a treatment that aims to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

The ensuing report, “Ending Conversion Therapy: Supporting and Affirming LGBTQ Youth,” found that the therapy is based on pseudoscience and did not meet the professional and ethical standards of the mental health professions. At best, these therapies are ineffective, and at worst, they can be profoundly detrimental, said Fisher.

“These therapies can involve very harmful treatments such as shock therapy—that is, showing an individual [photos of]a particular gender and shocking the individual so as to prevent a sexual response,” said Fisher, the Marie Ward Doty Endowed Chair and a professor of psychology.

“It can also involve berating and focusing on the immorality of the sexual orientation or gender identity. Basically, it’s a punitive form of treatment that has no scientific or clinical basis.”

Experts were called upon to examine the controversial therapy following the suicide of transgender teenager Leelah Alcorn, 17, whose parents forced her to participate in conversion therapy. The public outcry following her death led to the drafting of Leelah’s Law, which would ban the therapy.

SAMHSA’s report is an important step in the White House’s commitment to expanding the number of states who enact the law, said Fisher. Some studies estimate as many as one-third of children and adolescents who identify as a sexual or gender minority has undergone some kind of conversion therapy.

“Children, youth, and even young adults can experience post-traumatic stress disorder as a result, because it’s so stressful to be under these punitive and harsh conditions. It can also lead to depression or can increase a sense of dysphoria and further alienate individuals from their families,” Fisher said. “And, as in Leelah’s case, it can result in suicide.”

The report indicates that variations in gender identity and sexual orientation are normal in children. However, because of the prejudice and stigma they face, LGBT youth are particularly vulnerable to depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses.

“But it’s not because of these children’s identity [as LGBT individuals]—it’s because of the way they’re treated by their families, their schools, and society,” Fisher said. “These are the conditions… that any disenfranchised and marginalized group may experience.”

The way to support sexual and gender minority youth, she said, is to affirm and accept each individual and to support his or her need for self-expression. The idea is not to push young people in one direction or another, but rather to give them space to explore.

Moreover, mental health professionals, physicians, school personnel, and others who work with children and adolescents need additional training in LGBT issues to better understand the needs of these populations, Fisher said.

“The issues included in this report are intended to enhance the lives and well-being of sexual and gender minority youth by helping to ensure they receive informed, evidence-based, and bias-free services. The systematic elimination of conversion type therapies is critical to the goal of reducing the health disparities facing this vulnerable population.”

Read more on the Ethics and Society blog.

The award is given annually to one APA member psychologist that is no more than ten years post doctoral degree, who has made a distinguished contribution to neuropsychology in research, scholarship, and clinical work.

Rivera Mindt is co-investigator of a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to gauge the cognitive functions in HIV-positive Latinos in New York who are on anti-retroviral therapies. The $1 million study will help identify cognitive and sociocultural barriers that may interfere with the ability of the cohort to adhere to their medication regimens.

As an award recipient, Rivera Mindt has been invited to present her research at the 119th Annual APA convention, to be held in Washington D.C. on Aug. 4 to 7.

Rivera Mindt teaches in the graduate program in clinical psychology and at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She has been a member of the Fordham faculty since 2002.

This is Rivera Mindt’s second national award; last October she received the 2010 Early Career Service Award from the National Academy of Neuropsychology. That award was given to her for her professional service, her service to the community, and her outstanding teaching/mentoring of her students.

No Questions Asked compares the U.S. media reporting on post-9/11 events, such as the Iraq war and the 2004 presidential elections, with international media coverage of the same events. The book analyzes how patriotism, fear, obedience, indifference and propaganda influenced news reporting during that timeline.

Finnegan, an award-winning journalist, has written for major newspapers and news services, and was the editor of Occupational Hazards Magazine.  While a student at Fordham, she collaborated with Harold Takooshian, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Fordham and president of the American Psychological Association Society for General Psychology, on a study about attitudes toward terrorism.  Results of the study were published in the Fordham Law Journal as “The USA Patriot Act: Civil Liberties, The Media, and Public Opinion,” in May 2003.

The event is hosted by the Fordham Psychology Association and Psi Chi.

– Janet Sassi