“The elephant in the room”: Disclosing facial differences

Due to high visibility and low public awareness, people with facial differences (FD) frequently face decisions about whether to explain or disclose their FD. Although disclosure of concealable stigma has been frequently researched, little work has examined disclosure from the perspectives of people with FD, whose stigma is often not concealable. Thematic analysis was used to explore semistructured interviews of adults (n = 16) with diverse FDs. Disclosure approaches varied dependent on the discloser, the disclosee, and the context. Two themes illustrated participants’ approaches to (non)disclosure: agentic and autonomous. Agentic described when participants felt they had no choice in explaining or not explaining their condition, which fell into subthemes of forced disclosure, forced nondisclosure, and unauthorized disclosure. Those who used autonomous approaches made the deliberate decision to disclose or not disclose their FD to others. Autonomous subthemes included social avoidance, concealment, false disclosure, selective disclosure, indiscriminate disclosure, and broadcasting. Three experiential themes—misunderstanding, connection, and empowerment—characterized antecedents, experiences with, and consequences of (non)disclosure. Agentic (non)disclosure and autonomous (non)disclosure were frequently associated with the misunderstanding theme, while autonomous disclosure involved themes of connection and empowerment and was thus experienced as more beneficial. Participants’ advice was to allow people with FD disclosure autonomy. Improved social representation of people with FDs, public awareness, and stigma reduction will help remove the onus of disclosure from individuals with F

Investigating Sexual Violence in College-Aged Dating Couples: Does the Medium Affect the Message?

This paper explores the reactions of college students to sexual violence scenarios. Scenarios depicted long-term, same-sex and opposite-sex dating couples. Eight scenarios were created, varying along the factors of: presentation medium (video, written) and sex(es) of assailant and victim (Male/Female (M/F), Male/Male (M/M), Female/Female (F/F), and Female/Male (F/M)). Each participant was presented with one of the eight scenarios, in a between-groups fashion. Participants’ conceptualizations of the scenarios were gathered via comprehension and interpretation questions. Participants were also asked questions to gather demographic information. Demographic analyses showed that over one-third of respondents had experienced sexual assault. Contrary to hypotheses, written scenarios were found to be more believable and emotionally evocative than were video scenarios. Students were also more likely to identify sexual assault as having happened in the written, as opposed to video, scenarios, but showed no significant differences in their determinations of sexual assault among the conditions based on the sex(es) of the assailant and victim. However, respondents did think that M/F scenarios were more believable than F/M scenarios, and clearer than M/M and F/F scenarios. On average, students agreed/strongly agreed that sexual assault and unwanted sexual behaviors had occurred in the scenarios

Supplemental Material - “If not me, who?”: Awareness- and Self-Advocacy-Related Experiences of Adults With Diverse Rare Disorders

Supplemental Material for “If not me, who?”: Awareness- and Self-Advocacy-Related Experiences of Adults With Diverse Rare Disorders by Emily F. Plackowski and Kathleen R. Bogart in Qualitative Health Research</p