Dimensions of Recovery from Rape

Abstract

To date, all research on rape recovery has focused on patterns of reduction in negative symptoms—primarily fear, anxiety, depression, and sexual dysfunction. This article reports the first systematic attempt to conceptualize and measure how women grow and change in constructive ways as a consequence of having to cope with a rape and its aftermath. Factor analysis of instruments developed for this research and completed by 113 rape victims yield six dimensions of self-concept, five dimensions of coping techniques, and three dimensions of self-ascribed change. Reliability and validity data for these factors are presented, and the results are discussed in terms of the relations among negative symptomatology, growth outcomes, and self-rating of recovery.

Posttraumatic Growth in Treatment-seeking Female Assault Victims

“…However, other studies have yielded mixed support for this relationship [7,13,27,28], while a third group of studies have failed to find a significant relationship between measures of adjustment and growth [15,17,29,30]. Clearly, additional efforts are needed to clarify the relationship between growth outcomes and measures of adjustment.…”

“…Furthermore, a number of studies have used events that do not necessarily meet DSM-IV [1] diagnostic criteria for a traumatic stressor (e.g., [14,15,17,18,21,29]). This is an important conceptual distinction because medical stressors or bereavement may be qualitatively different than the experience of a traumatic stressor such as a sexual or physical assault.After narrowing growth outcomes studies to those using events likely to meet DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for a traumatic stressor [7,11,13,23,24,28,32], and to those that included measures of psychopathology [11,13,23,24,30], few studies remain. Far fewer studies remain using the PTGI or a measure of growth than can be compared across samples [28,30].…”

“…These categories broadly include, but are not limited to, perceived changes in the self such as greater self-efficacy and self-reliance, changed relationships with others, increased spirituality or changes in life philosophy, heightened awareness of new possibilities, and a greater appreciation of life. Consistent with these categories, researchers have documented increased feelings of self-efficacy among bereaved elderly women [19]; greater self-trust and self-worth among rape survivors [7,13]; strengthened relationships with family members and a better perspective on life among parents of at-risk infants [20], a perception of being better able to handle future problems among cancer patients [14]; and an increased appreciation for life and increased religiosity among bereaved spouses and parents [17].…”

“…In support of this view, researchers examining a wide range of stressors have documented an inverse relationship between a number of growth domains and measures of adjustment [11,14,18,[21][22][23][24][25][26]. However, other studies have yielded mixed support for this relationship [7,13,27,28], while a third group of studies have failed to find a significant relationship between measures of adjustment and growth [15,17,29,30]. Clearly, additional efforts are needed to clarify the relationship between growth outcomes and measures of adjustment.…”

“…After narrowing growth outcomes studies to those using events likely to meet DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for a traumatic stressor [7,11,13,23,24,28,32], and to those that included measures of psychopathology [11,13,23,24,30], few studies remain. Far fewer studies remain using the PTGI or a measure of growth than can be compared across samples [28,30].…”