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. [...]