Predictors of posttraumatic growth among conflict-related sexual violence survivors from Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

Background Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) was committed on a large scale against women across Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) during the 1990’s war, and research has shown both negative and positive psychosocial outcomes following such acts of interpersonal violence. We aim to determine the capacity for posttraumatic growth (PTG) among a population of women who experienced CRSV, and to what extent it is impacted by factors such as coping and optimism. Methods This study sought to examine the relationship between PTG (posttraumatic growth inventory), symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Harvard Trauma Questionnaire) and dispositional factors such as coping (COPE) and optimism (Life-Orientation Test-Revised) in a sample of n = 104 women. We first conducted bivariate correlations and then hierarchical linear regression analyses, and hypothesized that approach coping strategies and optimism will act to enhance PTG. Results Findings showed that the average total score for PTG in this study was 58.94 (SD = 23.01), and current PTSD symptomatology above a threshold of > 2.5 was detected in 92.3% ( n = 96) participants (mean score 3.18, SD = .45). Bivariate correlations showed that higher levels of PTG were associated with greater optimism, greater approach coping strategies positive reinterpretation and planning, and lower avoidance strategies behavioural disengagement and substance use. When entered into a regression model, only positive reinterpretation and behavioural disengagement remained, the R -square of the total set of predictors was 0.16, thus explaining 16% of PTG total score. Conclusion Two types of coping (namely capacity of both greater positive reinterpretation and lower behavioural disengagement) most strongly predicted growth after trauma in this sample of CRSV survivors from BiH. These dimensions of coping confirm the role of coping strategies in the development of PTG. Further research would be useful in corroborating these findings in other post-conflict settings, and delving further into the possibility of a dual mechanism of growth and distress after CRSV. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13031-019-0201-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Women's Contexts and Circumstances of Posttraumatic Growth After Sexual Victimization: A Systematic Review

“…The sample sizes of studies ranged from 2 to 39,703 with 19 (48.8%) studies having used qualitative, 19 (46.3%) quantitative, and 3 (7.3%) mixed-methods. The vast majority (63.4%) of studies were conducted in the USA (Cole and Lynn, 2010;Singh et al, 2010;Drauker et al, 2011;Warner Stidham et al, 2012;Williams and Nelson-Gardell, 2012;Wilson et al, 2012;Arias and Johnson, 2013;Davidson et al, 2013;McClain and Frederick Amar, 2013;Foster and Hagedorn, 2014;Ullman, 2014;Bryant-Davis et al, 2015;Kelley and Gidycz, 2015;Simon et al, 2015;Crews et al, 2016;Hartley et al, 2016;Hitter et al, 2017;Kerlin and Sosin, 2017;Smigelsky et al, 2017;Barnett and Maciel, 2019;Catabay et al, 2019;Kirkner and Ullman, 2019;Lahav et al, 2019;Nelson et al, 2019;Saint Arnault and Sinko, 2019;Strauss Swanson and Szymanski, 2020) followed by European studies with 9.8% (Phanichrat and Townshend, 2010;Whitelock et al, 2013;Perez-Gonzalez et al, 2017;Anderson et al, 2019), and two in South Africa (Phasha, 2010;Walker-Williams et al, 2012). One study each was from Australia (Vilencia et al, 2013), Bangladesh (Kaiser and Sinanan, 2020), Brazil (Pessoa et al, 2017), India (George and Bance, 2019), Israel (Kaye-Tzadok and Davidson-Ard, 2016),...…”

A Dual-Model of Posttraumatic Stress and Posttraumatic Growth in a Community Sample of Female Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Survivors from Bosnia and Herzegovina

“…In a previous study based on the dataset presented in this article (Anderson et al, 2019) findings from women in Bosnia & Herzegovina who experienced CRSV during the war from 1992-1995, showed that higher levels of positive reinterpretation (as a form of approach coping; i.e. seeing a situation in a favourable light) and lower levels of behavioural disengagement (as a form of avoidance coping; i.e.…”

“…Subscales are calculated using the mean score of items. Based on results from prior research (Anderson et al, 2019) two subscales were used in this study: 'positive reinterpretation' is comprised of 4 items (e.g. "I try to make it seem more positive"), and behavioural disengagement is comprised of 5 (e.g."…”

“…On the basis of the literature outlined above (Brooks et al, 2018;Elderton et al, 2017;Kuwert et al, 2014), and the findings of our previous study (Anderson et al, 2019) a model of PTG was defined. The core assumption is that the relationship between CRSV and PTG is mediated by psychosocial factors such as coping.…”

A Dual-Model of Posttraumatic Stress and Posttraumatic Growth in a Community Sample of Female Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Survivors from Bosnia & Herzegovina

“…On the basis of the literature outlined above (Brooks et al, 2018;Elderton et al, 2017;Kuwert et al, 2014), and the findings of our previous study (Anderson et al, 2019) a model of PTG was defined. The 6 core assumption is that the relationship between CRSV and PTG is mediated by psychosocial factors such as coping.…”