It is widely known that sexual assault disproportionately affects women, and college-aged women are particularly at risk. Sexual assault can occur at any age and may have a varying range of emotional consequences for survivors, including pathological coping mechanisms such as disordered eating behaviors. This study examined the mediating effect of resilience on the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and disordered eating behavior in a sample of women who reported experiencing sexual assault in adulthood. The sample included 312 undergraduate women who identified as majority White (81.4%) and heterosexual (77.9%). Participants completed measures assessing history of sexual experiences, PTSD symptoms, disordered eating behavior, and resilience. Only those who reported experiences of sexual victimization since age 14+ were included in analyses. Results confirmed the hypothesis, as resilience significantly mediated the relationship between PTSD symptoms and disordered eating behavior in a sample of women with a history of sexual victimization. These results highlight the importance of resilience as a mitigating factor in recovery from sexual trauma. Other research indicates that resilience may have emotion-regulatory benefits that mitigate the development of disordered eating behavior. However, the specific functionality of resilience as a protective factor after sexual victimization is unclear. Further research should focus on ways to foster resilience in a clinical setting for those with a history of sexual victimization. Limitations of this study include underrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities, as well as use of entirely self-report measures.
Introduction:The current study aimed to explicate the role of dissociation in the capability and suicide relationship by examining how lifetime and state-based acute dissociation contributes to capability for suicide using a multi-method approach of self-report and augmented reality (AR) laboratory tasks.Method: Participants (N = 145) were students recruited for course credit at a southern university. Participants completed self-report and laboratory AR dissociative induction tasks. Correlations and mediation analyses were conducted to test hypotheses using SPSS v. 26 and PROCESS Macro.Results: There was a significant indirect effect on capability and suicidal ideation via acute dissociation (β = 0.035, SE = 0.02, 95% CI = 0.001, 0.095). Additionally, there was a significant indirect effect on capability and suicide attempt(s) via dissociation (β = 0.19, SE = 0.10, 95% CI = 0.044, 0.449).
Conclusions:As prior theories suggest, dissociation may augment feeling disconnected from the body and may temporarily impact capability to render a suicidal act as more probable. The presence of dissociation after a painful and provocative attempt may increase capability and pain tolerance. Implications of these findings include the consideration of dissociation as a pertinent factor in the assessment and treatment of suicide and the role of AR in aiding the exploration of suicide correlates.
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