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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