The association between trauma exposure and mental health-related challenges such as depression are well documented in the research literature. The assumptive world theory was used to explore this relationship in 97 female survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). Participants completed self-report questionnaires that assessed trauma history, world assumptions, and depression severity. Regression analyses revealed that diminished world assumptions mediate the relationship between trauma exposure and depression severity. As predicted, this relationship held for interpersonal forms of trauma, whereas noninterpersonal forms of trauma were related neither to diminished world assumption nor to depression severity. This suggests that our conceptual system of relating to the world, our core beliefs that comprise our assumptive world, may be challenged in the face of human-induced trauma, increasing our risk for developing adverse psychological outcomes such as depression.

Adverse consequences of intimate partner violence (IPV) are well documented, whereas less research has explored positive changes. Recent efforts indicate that survivors report posttraumatic growth (PTG), but the schema reconstruction hypothesis by which this is achieved is in need of further investigation. One model of PTG suggests that growth is triggered by trauma(s) that challenges an individual's assumptive world. This threat promotes cognitive processing and schema reconstruction that fosters a sense of meaning and value in one's life. As schema change is posited as the main cognitive antecedent of PTG, a longitudinal assessment of world assumptions was used to examine whether assumption change predicts PTG in IPV survivors. Results indicate that world assumptions became more positive 1 year after an initial interview but only for women who had not been revictimized in the year between study assessments. Furthermore, positive world assumption change was associated with greater PTG scores. Implications for intervention and research are discussed.

Research examining meaning-making in the aftermath of interpersonal victimization among women has been restricted by quantitative methods and a focus on single distressing event. Qualitative methods were used to inspect meaning-making cognitions among a community sample of IPV (intimate partner violence) survivors. Consensus coding resulted in eight categories of meaning-making. The most widely endorsed cognition was self-blaming. Other strategies included justification for the abuser, normalizing violence, attribution to karmic or godly intervention, minimization and social comparison, reappraisal/opportunity for growth, absence of a protective figure, and failure to make sense of abuse. Implications with respect to adaptiveness and intervention are discussed.

Research has shown that women's increased risk for interpersonal trauma (IPT) may place them at heightened risk for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, research has not shown whether the timing of IPT exposure and revictimization impact PTSD development, and whether this may also account for observed gender disparities in PTSD. Consensus coding was used to group 180 undergraduate participants into one of four IPT exposure groups: no exposure, childhood only, adolescent/adulthood only, life span. Women were significantly overrepresented in the life span-exposure group that experienced IPT in both childhood and adolescence/adulthood. IPT-group membership significantly predicted PTSD symptoms, with post hoc analyses revealing that the life span-exposure group reported significantly more PTSD symptoms than the no-exposure and adolescent/adulthood-only groups, but did not differ from the childhood-only group. A generalized linear model revealed that when both gender and IPT group were considered in relationship to PTSD symptoms, only IPT-group membership significantly predicted PTSD symptoms.

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Recent research suggests that individuals with attachment difficulties are at increased risk for experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization. However, most studies conducted on this topic have been cross-sectional, leaving it unclear whether attachment difficulties actually precede this type of violence. The current 6-month prospective study examined the relation between adult attachment and subsequent IPV victimization in a sample of 133 college women. At Time 1, participants completed the Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) questionnaire to assess the two underlying orthogonal dimensions of adult attachment (anxiety and avoidance) and the Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire (TLEQ) to assess prior exposure to interpersonal traumatic events. At follow-up, participants completed a modified version of the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS-2) to assess IPV victimization. Results indicated that attachment anxiety was associated with an increased risk for experiencing physical assault during the 6-month follow-up period, even after statistically adjusting for prior interpersonal trauma. In contrast, attachment avoidance was unrelated to subsequent IPV victimization.

Females are twice as likely as males to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which may be a function of cultural prescriptions of gender, rather than biological sex. Gender-specific appraisals of trauma (i.e., Criterion A2 of PTSD) may increase susceptibility to developing posttraumatic stress in women. Results showed that exposure to accumulated intentionally caused traumas did not differ across sex. Female sex was associated with a 5.2 odds of endorsement of Criterion A2. After controlling for the effects of different types of traumatic event exposure and biological sex, masculine gender-type was negatively associated with endorsement of Criterion A2. Males classified as masculine were underrepresented in the group of participants who endorsed Criterion A2. Thus, masculine components of identity in males may buffer the effects of initial traumatic stress reactions. Implications for DSM-V are discussed.