This study examines the differential effects of sexual revictimization in a community sample of 248 African-American and White American women, ages 18 to 36. Two classifications of sexual revictimization over the life course were used to assess the effects on later sexual and psychological functioning. The findings suggest that unintended pregnancies and abortions were significantly associated with sexual revictimization. Women who reported more than one incident in both childhood and adulthood were also likely to have multiple partnerships and brief sexual relationships. The findings are discussed within the context of the dynamics of sexual revictimization and its effects. Suggestions are offered for therapeutic strategies with survivors in order to minimize the effects of sexual revictimization.

Internal and external factors are examined as mediational processes and/ or coping strategies that link four aspects of women's rape experiences to the initial and lasting effects on their post-rape adjustment, attitude toward sex and intimacy, and lifestyle changes to prevent future assaults. Data are from a multiethnic community sample of 55 women who had been victims of rape or attempted rape. A measured or observed variable simultaneous path analysis model was used to test the relationships among the traumatic circumstances, mediators, and outcome variables. More self-blame, high involvement of police or other agencies, a greater number of repeated rapes per incident, and severity of abuse predicted women's negative initial and lasting attitudes toward sex and intimacy. The implications of these findings are discussed as they relate to barriers in disclosing attempted and completed incidents of rape.Incidents o f attempted and completed rape are k n o w n t o be some of the more serious forms of sexual assault (Russell, 1983). In the past 10 years, the initial and lasting effects o f rape o n women's psychological adjustment

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