World Assumptions, Sexual Assault, Depression, and Fearful Attitudes Toward Relationships

Abstract

Harris, Valentiner / FEARFUL ATTITUDES The current study examines the relationships among world assumptions, history of adult sexual assault, depressive symptoms, and fearful attitudes toward relationships. Three hundred and sixty-one female college students completed the Assumptive World Scales and a set of questionnaires to assess their sexual assault history subsequent to age 15, levels of depressive symptoms, sexual aversion, paranoia/self-consciousness, and fear of intimacy. Factor analysis of the Assumptive World Scales items revealed five dimensions that had clear relationships with factors proposed in the initial study. These five Assumptive Worlds dimensions accounted for significant variance in depression. These dimensions also accounted for significant variance in sexual aversion, paranoia/self-consciousness, and fear of intimacy, even when controlling for levels of depressive symptoms and sexual assault severity. The implications of these findings for research on sexual assault, cognitive schema, and interpersonal functioning are discussed.

Assessing the psychometric properties of the world assumptions scale

“…Significant relations have been found between more negative assumptions and depression, state and trait anxiety, negative affect, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (Dekel, Solomon, Elklit, & Ginzburg, 2004;Elklit et al, 2007;Foa, Ehlers, Clark, Tolin, & Orsillo, 1999;Harris & Valentiner, 2002;Owens & Chard, 2001;Tomich & Helgeson, 2002). However, across studies, the relations among the WAS subscales and distress measures were small (albeit significant).…”

“…Items tapping each of the hypothesized domains of world assumptions loaded on separate factors, except for the benevolence of the impersonal world and benevolence of people items, which loaded on the same factor. Three additional EFAs have been conducted (Harris & Valentiner, 2002;Littleton & Breitkopf, 2006;Rini et al, 2004), and none reproduced this 7-factor structure or the 8-factor structure originally proposed. However, the best way to test the factor structure is to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), testing the originally proposed factor structure with indices of fit (Floyd & Widaman, 1995).…”

“…Nonetheless, results of studies that have sought to test this truism, which rely almost exclusively on the World Assumptions Scale (WAS; Janoff-Bulman, 1989) to operationalize the assumptive world, provide a somewhat mixed picture. For example, cross-sectional studies comparing various trauma groups to no-trauma groups suggest that between-group differences are small and inconsistent (e.g., Franklin, Janoff-Bulman, & Roberts, 1990;Harris & Valentiner, 2002;Tomich & Helgeson, 2002;Walker, Archer, & Davies, 2005). There are several possible reasons why studies fail…”

Cognitive processing therapy for acute stress disorder resulting from an anti-gay assault

“…Negative beliefs about self and the world have been associated with increased PTSD severity following traumatic events (Harris & Valentiner, 2002;Newman, Riggs, & Roth, 1997;). Compared to victims of nonbias crimes, hate crime victims have been found to have more negative beliefs about the benevolence of people and the world (Herek et al, 1999;.…”

Vivo Questionnaire: A Measure of Human Worldviews and Identity in Trauma, Crisis, and Loss—Validation and Preliminary Findings

“…They have revealed significant clinical data obtained from general samples (Startup, Makgekgenene, & Webster, 2007), and especially in survivors of interpersonal violence (Ali, Dunmore, Clark, & Ehlers, 2002), sexual abuse (Harris & Valentiner, 2002;Ullman, 1997), holocaust (Magwaza, 1999), or political violence. But many other studies have failed to find differences between clinical and non-clinical populations, or data from worldviews have correlated poorly with PTSD and other trauma response measures (Jeavons & Godber, 2005;Kaler et al, 2008).…”