[PDF] Adult Attachment And Perceptions Of Social Support As Predictors Of Trauma Symptoms In Female Survivors Of Sexual Assault eBook

Author : John P. Wilson
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 421 pages
File Size : 41,11 MB
Release : 2007-07-17
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 0387709908

GET BOOK

This work is a vital set of insights and guidelines that will contribute to more aware and meaningful practice for mental health professionals. Focusing equally on theoretical concepts, culturally valid assessment methods, and cultural adaptation in trauma and resilience, an array of experts present the cutting edge of research and strategies. Extended case studies illustrate an informative range of symptom profiles, comorbid conditions, and coping skills, as well as secondary traumas that can occur in asylum seekers.

Author : Sarah K. Tracy
Publisher :
Page : 216 pages
File Size : 44,77 MB
Release : 2014
Category : Assertiveness (Psychology)
ISBN :

GET BOOK

This paper presents an assessment of how moderating variables may reduce PTSD symptoms for females who have experienced sexual assault. The study examined whether higher levels of assertiveness, religiosity, and perceived social support would result in fewer PTSD symptoms for female sexual assault survivors. Moderation analysis was used to determined if any of the moderator variables significantly reduced PTSD symptom severity for these women, thus leading to potential evidence based treatment for female sexual assault survivors. Implications and suggestions for future research will be provided. Keywords: sexual, assault, PTSD, moderators, women.

Author : Laura Kay Jones
Publisher :
Page : 402 pages
File Size : 19,35 MB
Release : 2013
Category : Empathy
ISBN :

GET BOOK

"An estimated 80 percent of individuals living in the United States have experienced at least one traumatic event during their lifetime, with nearly one in eight developing symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a result (Breslau & Kessler, 2001). Prevalence rates, however, are higher among females, particularly female survivors of interpersonal trauma (Kessler, 2000; Olff, Langeland, Draijer, & Gersons, 2007; Tolin & Foa, 2006). Of the numerous factors that influence PTSD, social support has been identified as one of the foremost predictors of both symptom severity and duration (Brewin, Andrews, & Valentine, 2000; Ozer, Best, Lipsey, & Weiss, 2003). However, research routinely assesses social support based solely on subjective measures of perceived support and has yet to elucidate whether individuals with PTSD have the neurophysiological capacity to accurately perceive and maintain available support networks. /DISS_para Following trauma, the compromised ability of the prefrontal cortex to optimally regulate affective processing centers of the brain, accompanied by the dysregulation of an individual's autonomic nervous system, underlie the hyperarousal and affective numbing characteristic of PTSD (Garfinkel & Liberzon, 2009; Glover, 1992; Ogden, Minton, & Pain, 2006; Porges, 2011; Siegel, 1995; van der Kolk, 2006). Further still, such dysregulated neurological functioning occurs in tandem with a maladaptive cascade of regulatory hormones known to influence social functioning as well as empathy (Hurlemann et al., 2010; Porges, 2003; Seng, 2010; Steuwe et al., 2012). In this way, neurophysiological corollaries of trauma may inhibit an individual's ability to both experience and express empathy, preventing survivors from recognizing and drawing upon the viable social support available to them (Nietlisbach & Maercker, 2009). As such, the present study explored the relationship between PTSD symptom severity, emotional numbing, empathy, and perceived social support in female survivors of interpersonal trauma. Findings revealed that the difficulties in empathy experienced among survivors were directly related to PTSD symptom severity. However, such impairments appeared to be dictated by the survivor's degree of emotional numbing rather than the severity of the PTSD symptoms specifically. Emotional numbing, and difficulty perceiving or expressing positive emotions in particular, was found to also predict perceptions of social support. Furthermore, although empathy exhibited a direct relationship with perceived support, impairments in empathy did not mediate the relationship between positive emotional numbing and perceptions of the social support availability and valence as originally hypothesized. However, the severity of a survivor's comorbid depression appeared to confound nearly all of the relationships between the study variables. Nevertheless, emotional numbing, a condition common to both depression and PTSD, continued to show a strong relationship with empathy even when accounting for depression. DISS_para Such insights have marked implications on the way counselors understand and work with female survivors of interpersonal trauma and suggest that experiences of emotional numbing and comorbid depression should be central foci in early therapeutic interventions. Interventions aimed at regulating the autonomic nervous system have shown success in alleviating both emotional numbing and struggles with depression and may be appropriate in this regard. The need to assess for and work with symptoms of emotional numbing and depression early in therapy may serve to enhance empathic capacity in survivors, facilitate the development of a strong therapeutic relationship and cultivate the interpersonal resources necessary for lasting change and healing to occur. Future research will serve to expand the many potential advantages that such findings can have on better conceptualizing the influence of interpersonal trauma on a survivor's ability to experience and express empathy and a full range of emotional experiences and benefit from the positive social support that exists around her."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.

Author : Melissa Decker
Publisher :
Page : 95 pages
File Size : 31,93 MB
Release : 2016
Category :
ISBN :

GET BOOK

Sexual assault, which includes all types of unwanted coerced or forced sexual behavior, is a prevalent issue among college women. Rape, considered the most serious form of sexual assault (McMahon, 2011), is defined as oral, vaginal, or anal penetration performed against one's will by force, the threat of force, or when a person is unable to give consent (Koss & Gidycz, 1985). It is estimated that up to one in four undergraduate women will experience an attempted or completed rape during her college career (Fisher, Cullen, & Turner, 2000). The potential adverse consequences for college women who are sexually assaulted include symptoms of PTSD and depression, heavy drinking, impaired academic performance, and increased risk of sexual re-victimization. Women who are sexually assaulted once during college report being sexually re-assaulted three more times on average (Katz et al., 2010). College sexual assault survivors run a high risk of re-victimization both because they engage in more risky behaviors and because they are less likely to effectively resist a sexual assault attempt. Yet, the interactions of the underlying risk factors are not well-understood and have not been examined in relation to one another. This thesis analyzed sexual assault risk perception and sexual assault resistance self-efficacy with regard to the interactions of victim status, symptoms of PTSD and depression, frequent drinking, and risky sex. I also sought to further understand sexual re-victimization within the college population, so that tertiary treatment and risk reduction tactics can better target the specific needs of survivors. Participants included 1,955 ethnically diverse undergraduate women, 366 of whom endorsed a rape history. They completed an online survey of their experiences of adolescent and adult rape, mental health symptoms, drinking frequency, risky sexual behaviors, sexual assault risk perception, and sexual assault resistance self-efficacy, as part of a larger study. Through a series of independent samples t-tests and linear regressions, relationships among victim status, mental health symptoms, drinking frequency, and risky sex behaviors were examined. Significant differences arose between rape survivors and non-victims. While rape survivors perceived situations as riskier for sexual assault than non-victims, they also reported less sexual assault resistance self-efficacy. Frequent drinkers perceived more sexual assault risk than non-frequent drinkers, and those survivors who reported more PTSD symptoms or engaged in more risky sex perceived greater risk for sexual assault. Sexual assault resistance self-efficacy was lowest among those who frequently drank and those with depressive symptoms. In fact, depressive symptoms had a greater effect on reducing moderately assertive resistance self-efficacy among survivors than among non-victims. Among rape survivors, depressive symptoms were more strongly associated with reduced assertive resistance self-efficacy for those who frequently drank than those who did not. Re-victimization, therefore, may be best prevented on the individual level by treating rape survivors for PTSD, depressive symptoms, and problematic drinking. On a broader level, implementing bystander interventions to change cultural norms may help reduce overall risk of sexual assault.

Author : Brett Laursen
Publisher : Guilford Press
Page : 801 pages
File Size : 32,81 MB
Release : 2012-02-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1609189515

GET BOOK

Appropriate for use in developmental research methods or analysis of change courses, this is the first methods handbook specifically designed to meet the needs of those studying development. Leading developmental methodologists present cutting-edge analytic tools and describe how and when to use them, in accessible, nontechnical language. They also provide valuable guidance for strengthening developmental research with designs that anticipate potential sources of bias. Throughout the chapters, research examples demonstrate the procedures in action and give readers a better understanding of how to match research questions to developmental methods. The companion website (www.guilford.com/laursen-materials) supplies data and program syntax files for many of the chapter examples.

Author : Christy E. Allen
Publisher :
Page : 108 pages
File Size : 18,1 MB
Release : 2016
Category : Blaming the victim
ISBN : 9781369139648

GET BOOK

This study examined the relations between perceived social support (PSS), negative social interactions (NSI), self-blame, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and gender in adult sexual assault survivors. Participants (N = 315) were recruited from introductory psychology courses at a Midwestern university and from Amazon Mechanical Turk, and had to report at least one sexual assault experience since the age of fourteen in order to be eligible. After being screened for eligibility, participants completed a series of self-report questionnaires online, and received either course credits or a small monetary sum for their participation. As hypothesized, self-blame partially explained the relation between PSS and PTSD in the total sample, and partially explained the relation between PSS and PTSD. Similar results were found for NSI. These two models were not equivalent by gender, as expected. Post-hoc analyses suggest that PSS may have more influence on PTSD for women than for men, and vice versa for NSI. Additionally, self-blame was a significant predictor of PTSD in men but not in women. Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed.

Author : Brendel R. Doss
Publisher :
Page : pages
File Size : 21,6 MB
Release : 2015
Category : Counseling psychology
ISBN :

GET BOOK

Childhood trauma and neglect affects the individual and the larger society in a negative way. Negative life events like child abuse and neglect do not stay within childhood. The long-term aftermath of child trauma is seen in the higher symptom rates of depression and anxiety, increased risk-taking behaviors, interpersonal and relational difficulties, and higher rates of physical health problems. Adding to the challenging possible outcomes is a significantly higher likelihood of a re-traumatization or revictimization. Research has indicated key variables that may function to protect against or promote adult sexual victimization for survivors of child trauma and neglect. Trauma and neglect occurring during childhood disturbs the development of secure attachments and causes possible distortion in understanding healthy, secure relationships. Additionally, how an individual responds after a traumatic event may affect the possibility of a traumatic event in the future. Hyperarousal, such as feeling watchful and on guard, is a criterion for posttraumatic stress disorder and common reaction after a traumatic event occurs. Variables such as attachment security and behavioral hyper-arousal may contribute to rates of revictimization for survivors of childhood trauma and neglect. The current study evaluated the contributions of childhood trauma, insecure attachment style, and levels of hyper-arousal to adult revictimization. It was hypothesized that more severe experiences of childhood sexual trauma, higher levels of insecure attachment styles, and higher levels of hyper-arousal behaviors will predict the occurrence of adult sexual revictimization in a sample of college women. Additionally, exploratory analysis was conducted to evaluate whether experiences of different forms of abuse or neglect occurring during childhood and insecure attachments along with hyperaroused responses to stressful life events, also would predict adult sexual victimization. Results of the logistic regression indicate that the three-predictor model of the main analysis (experiences of child sexual abuse, insecure attachment styles, and hyper aroused behaviors) provided a statistically significant improvement over the constant only model. While the overall model was statistically significant, the individual variables were not. Results of the four separate logistic regressions run in the exploratory analysis showed similar results to the main analysis; all the models were significant, but individual variables did not reach statistical significance. Finally, a logistic regression with only two predictors (hyperarousal and insecure attachment) augmented these findings by revealing a less significant model, compared to the main analysis. The findings of this study highlight two important points. First, independent of the type of abuse or neglect experienced in childhood, when coupled with an insecure attachment style and symptoms of hyper-arousal, child trauma and neglect predict later experiences of adult sexual assault. Second, this study adds to the evidence that the hyper-arousal symptom cluster plays an important role in understanding the relationship between adult sexual assault occurring for survivors of child trauma and neglect.

Author : Rachael Goodman-Williams
Publisher :
Page : 119 pages
File Size : 25,13 MB
Release : 2020
Category : Electronic dissertations
ISBN :

GET BOOK

Sexual assault is a major public health crisis, with national epidemiological studies reporting that approximately one-in-five women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. Experiential and empirical data indicate that sexual assault causes significant distress for those who experience it, with approximately one-third of sexual assault survivors evidencing lifetime posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In recent years, there have been increasing calls to expand recognition of PTSD beyond its binary framing and to incorporate contextual variables into the study of PTSD so that understandings of posttraumatic stress are more fully situated within the context of trauma survivors' lives. The current study responds to these stated needs. This study utilized two waves of a longitudinal data set in which sexual assault survivors were surveyed annually about their posttraumatic stress symptoms and social support. Using this data, I conducted a latent transition analysis (LTA) to identify latent classes of posttraumatic stress experiences and model the probability of transitioning between latent classes over time. With the goal of highlighting existing strengths in survivors' communities and better understanding optimal utilization of those resources, I also incorporated structural and functional social support as predictors of class membership and class transition. Four latent classes emerged at each time point and were named the High Severity, Depressed & Anxious, Avoidant & Reactive, and Low Severity classes. These classes demonstrated both quantitative (i.e., overall severity) and qualitative (i.e., symptom cluster severity) differences. Transition probabilities illustrated a general pattern of de-escalation. As would be expected, de-escalation was more likely when both types of social support were high compared to when both types of social support were low. Notable differences between the latent classes emerged, however, when one type of social support was high and the other was low. Specifically, while participants assigned to the High Severity class at Time 1 were more likely to de-escalate when structural support was high and functional support was low than the reverse, the opposite pattern was true for participants assigned to the Depressed & Anxious class. The intermediate classes identified in this latent class analysis highlight the limitations of categorical understandings of posttraumatic stress in which one either "has" or "does not have" PTSD. These findings support the calls that have been made by researchers and clinicians to introduce a "subclinical" level of PTSD to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, while also encouraging nuance beyond what even a subclinical designation would provide. Specifically, while a subclinical designation would reflect some amount of quantitative variation between the latent classes, it would be unlikely to reflect the qualitative differences found in the current study. These qualitative differences were especially relevant to understanding the longitudinal relationship between posttraumatic stress and social support, with functional support appearing to be especially relevant to those in the High Severity class and structural support especially relevant to those in the Depressed & Anxious class. The findings indicate that sexual assault survivors' social support needs may vary based on the specific symptoms that define their experience of posttraumatic stress at a given point in time. These findings also provide guidance for clinical and non-clinical practitioners regarding how to help survivors engage their support networks most effectively in the aftermath of trauma.