Posttraumatic growth, depreciation, and psychopathology following sexual victimization: a unified model of predictors
Abstract
Sexual violence is amongst the most detrimental events a woman can experience,
with survivors suffering long-term consequences to their mental health and perception of self.
However, accumulating research shows trauma can also act as a catalyst for positive change. To
gain a fully comprehensive understanding of sexual victimization, a simultaneous examination of
positive and negative change is needed, as is an exploration of the cognitive and social
experiences that differentiate post-trauma presentations. Method: Female undergraduate
students (N = 358) completed standardized measures assessing positive and negative change
following trauma (i.e., posttraumatic growth and posttraumatic depreciation, respectively);
psychopathology (PTSD, anxiety, depression); world beliefs (thoughts of the world and other
people); cognitive processing styles (rumination types); and social experiences (disclosure
reactions and content). A series of regressions was used to identify the significant predictors of
the three post-trauma outcomes, while structural equation modelling was used to identify the
process of posttraumatic growth. [...]