Heather Littleton

Coping with the Experience of Rape

The coping strategies that a victim of a rape engages in can have a strong impact on the development and persistence of psychological symptoms. Research provides evidence that victims who rely heavily on avoidance strategies, such as suppression, are less likely to recover successfully than those who rely less heavily on these strategies. The present study utilized structural path analysis to identify predictors of avoidance coping following rape and examined factors in the assault itself (e.g., force, alcohol use), sequelae of the assault (e.g., self-blame, loss of self-worth), and social support as potential direct and indirect predictors of avoidance coping. From a sample of 1,253 university women, the responses of 216 women who endorsed an experience of rape were examined. Results suggested that sequelae of the assault such as feelings of self-blame and negative reactions received from others are potentially important predictors of avoidance coping. Implications of the results for future rape recovery research are discussed.

Psychosocial stress during pregnancy and perinatal outcomes: a meta-analytic review.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between psychosocial stress in pregnancy and negative perinatal outcomes and to identify key moderators of this relationship. To evaluate this relationship, a meta-analytic review was conducted of studies that prospectively assessed the relationship between psychosocial stress in pregnancy and perinatal outcomes. A total of 35 studies, written or published between 1991 and 2009, involving 31,323 women were located. The overall association between psychosocial stress and negative perinatal outcomes was significant, but negligibly small in size (r (35) = −0.04, CI = −0.08, −0.01). Examining specific perinatal outcomes, only the associations with neonatal weight (r (14) = −0.07, CI = −0.03, −0.01) and risk for low birth weight (r (5) = 0.07, CI = 0.03, 0.10) were statistically significant, but again, very small. Results support that psychosocial stress explains a negligible to very small amount of the variability in perinatal outcomes. Future research should focus on identifying other psychosocial and lifestyle variables that alone or in interaction with other factors explain larger amounts of the variability in perinatal outcomes. Future research should also examine whether psychosocial stress increases risk for negative outcomes in combination with other biomedical and psychosocial risk factors.

Impaired and incapacitated rape victims: assault characteristics and post-assault experiences

Alcohol is the most common “rape drug,” with up to two-thirds of victims consuming alcohol prior to the assault. Surprisingly, little research has examined the assault and postassault experiences of victims who were impaired or incapacitated as a result of substance use, including alcohol, during a rape. Thus, the current study evaluated the assault and postassault experiences of a sample of 340 nonimpaired, impaired, and incapacitated college rape victims. Results supported that these three groups differed in several assault characteristics, including threats by the assailant, resistance by the victim, and relationship with the assailant. In addition, impairment and incapacitation were associated with several postassault factors, including self-blame, stigma, and problematic alcohol use. Results also highlighted similarities in victims’ experiences, including levels of postassault distress. Implications of the findings for future research investigating impaired and incapacitated sexual assault victims are discussed.

SEXUAL ASSAULT VICTIMS' ACKNOWLEDGMENT STATUS AND REVICTIMIZATION RISK

How a victim of rape characterizes her assault has potential implications for her postassault experiences and revictimization risk. Prior research has identified several potential benefits to not conceptualizing ones experience as a form of victimization. The current study sought to identify whether there are costs to not acknowledging rape as well, specifically whether unacknowledged victims are at elevated risk of revictimization. The revictimization risk behaviors of 334 acknowledged and unacknowledged female college rape victims were compared. Unacknowledged victims reported more hazardous alcohol use and were more likely to report that they continued a relationship with the assailant after the assault. A subsample of 105 victims completed a 6-month follow-up survey regarding sexual victimization during the follow-up period. Unacknowledged victims were nearly twice as likely to report having experienced an attempted rape during the 6-month follow-up period. Implications of the results for future work evaluating rape acknowledgment, rape recovery, and revictimization are discussed.

Unacknowledged Rape: How Much Do We Know About the Hidden Rape Victim?

Abstract Research suggests that over half of the women who have experienced forced, unwanted sex do not label this experience as rape. Given this strikingly high prevalence, a better understanding of why victims do not acknowledge rape as well as the implications for the victim of not acknowledging rape seems imperative. The present article reviews what is known about unacknowledged rape and discusses potential theories for understanding the phenomenon, including script theory, which posits that victims do not acknowledge their rape experience because it does not match their event-related ideas about rape. The potential impact of not acknowledging rape on the recovery process and implications of this research for the clinician are also discussed, and directions for future research are proposed.

Social support, world assumptions, and exposure as predictors of anxiety and quality of life following a mass trauma

This study examined the influence of a mass trauma (the Virginia Tech campus shootings) on anxiety symptoms and quality of life, as well as the potential vulnerability/protective roles of world assumptions and social support. Pre-trauma adjustment data, collected in the six months prior to the shooting, was examined along with two-month post-shooting data in a sample of 298 female students enrolled at the university at the time of the shootings. Linear regression analyses revealed consistent predictive roles for world assumptions pertaining to control and self-worth as well as family support. In addition, for those more severely exposed to the shooting, greater belief in a lack of control over outcomes appeared to increase vulnerability for post-trauma physiological and emotional anxiety symptoms. Implications of the results for research and intervention following mass trauma are discussed.

If She Is Not a Victim, Does That Mean She Was Not Traumatized?: Evaluation of Predictors of PTSD Symptomatology Among College Rape Victims

The issue of whether individuals can be traumatized by the experience of rape if they do not label the experience a victimization remains controversial. Indeed, there are conflicting findings with regard to the extent to which such unacknowledged victims experience posttraumatic symptoms. The goal of the current study was to evaluate acknowledgment status as a predictor of posttraumatic stress disorder symptomatology using structural equation modeling among a sample of 346 college rape victims. Results showed that whereas acknowledged victims reported more symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, acknowledgment status did not add to the prediction of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in a model including assault violence and other important predictors of these symptoms.

Beyond the Campus: Unacknowledged Rape Among Low-Income Women

Studies of college rape victims have found that many are unacknowledged; that is, they do not label their experience rape. The current study investigated factors associated with unacknowledged rape among low-income women. Out of a sample of 1,033 women, 167 reported having experienced rape. Unacknowledged victims, relative to acknowledged victims, reported less violent assaults and more alcohol use before the assault and were more likely to have been assaulted by a romantic partner. Unacknowledged victims also disclosed less often and reported fewer feelings of stigma. Implications of the work for future studies of unacknowledged rape are discussed.

Longitudinal evaluation of the relationship between maladaptive trauma coping and distress: examination following the mass shooting at Virginia Tech

Abstract Growing evidence supports that the coping strategies that individuals utilize are a key predictor of distress following trauma. However, there is limited longitudinal research examining the relationship between psychological distress and coping over time, and even less research examining the possibility of reciprocal relationships between distress and coping, despite the fact that prior theoretical work posits such a relationship. The current study modeled the relationship between distress (PTSD and general distress) and maladaptive coping over time in a sample of 368 college women exposed to the mass shooting at Virginia Tech (VT). Participants completed web surveys regarding their distress, shooting-related coping, and shooting-related PTSD 2 months, 6 months, and 1 year following the shooting. They also completed measures of their psychological distress prior to the shooting as part of an unrelated study. A structural cross-lagged model with latent variables supported a reciprocal relationship between maladaptive coping and general psychological distress over time. In contrast, the cross-lagged model evaluating the relationship between PTSD and maladaptive coping supported that PTSD symptoms predicted coping over time, but there was no reciprocal relationship between coping and PTSD. Implications of the findings for future work examining adjustment following traumatic events are discussed.

Resource loss as a predictor of posttrauma symptoms among college women following the mass shooting at Virginia Tech.

We examined risk factors for posttrauma symptomatology, 2 and 6 months following the April 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech. Using a conservation of resources framework and a Web-based survey methodology, we prospectively evaluated the relations among preshooting distress, social support, resource loss, and posttrauma symptomatology in a sample of 293 female students enrolled at the university at the time of the shootings. Structural equation modeling supported that preshooting social support and distress predicted resource loss postshooting. Resource loss predicted symptomatology 2 months and 6 months after the shooting. Implications of the results for research and intervention following mass trauma are discussed.