Developing Trauma-Informed Research Methods: Using Proxy Respondents to Assess Sexual Assault Survivors' Experiences Seeking Medical Forensic Exams

In research on sexual assault victims' help-seeking, proxy data sources are often utilized because outreach to survivors immediately postassault may increase a study's risk-to-benefit ratio. Victim advocates and services providers are common proxy respondents, but empirical research comparing the accuracy of their information is needed. We collaborated with seven sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) programs to collect de-identified, paired data from nurses and advocates regarding the help-seeking experiences of N = 744 adult victims. Using pairwise McNemar tests, we found statistically significant agreement on victim demographics, assault characteristics, and victims' decisions regarding medical forensic exams, sexual assault kit (SAK) collection, and release of SAKs for forensic DNA testing. Nurses and advocates had different information regarding victims' disclosure histories and their reasons for seeking SANE care.