Sexual Assault Trauma and Trauma Change

The findings indicate that a previous rape best explains trauma change, while victim's demographics, social supports, and other prior life stress variables are important at specific time periods during the rape trauma syndrome.

Abstract

An exploratory model of variables affecting level of sexual assault trauma at given times and change in trauma levels over time is developed and tested using a sample of female rape victims admitted to a treatment center over a two-year period. Based on a one-way analysis of variance and multiple classification analysis, the findings indicate that a previous rape best explains trauma change, while victim's demographics, social supports, and other prior life stress variables are important at specific time periods during the rape trauma syndrome. Implications of these results are discussed in terms of treatment-related issues.