Life-Course Typology of Adults Who Experienced Sexual Violence

Two qualitative methodologies were used to develop a life-course typology of individuals who had been exposed to sexual violence. Interview narratives of 121 adult women and men who participated in qualitative study of women’s and men’s responses to sexual violence provided the data. The authors com...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of interpersonal violence 2010-07, Vol.25 (7), p.1155-1182
Main Authors: Draucker, Claire, Martsolf, Donna
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adolescent Development
Adult
Adults
African Americans
Child Abuse
Child Development
Classification
Coping
Domestic Violence - psychology
Experience
Family Environment
Family Violence
Female
Females
Foreign Aid
Humans
Interviews
Life Events
Male
Males
Middle Aged
Narration
Narratives
Ohio
Parent-Child Relations
Peace
Qualitative research
Quality of Life
Self Concept
Sex crimes
Sex Offenses - psychology
Sexual Abuse
Sexual Assault
Sexual Harassment
Social Adjustment
Social Environment
Stress, Psychological - etiology
Substance-Related Disorders - etiology
Substance-Related Disorders - psychology
Typology
Violence
Whites
Young Adult
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Summary:Two qualitative methodologies were used to develop a life-course typology of individuals who had been exposed to sexual violence. Interview narratives of 121 adult women and men who participated in qualitative study of women’s and men’s responses to sexual violence provided the data. The authors combined a narrative approach (holistic-content and holistic-form analysis) to describe the life courses of the participants and a qualitative person-oriented approach (cross-case analysis) to identify meaningful subgroups within the total sample. The six groups are as follows: (a) life of turmoil, (b) life of struggles, (c) diminished life, (d) taking control of life, (e), finding peace in life, and (f) getting life back to normal. This work exemplifies a promising strategy for identifying subgroups of violence-exposed individuals within a heterogeneous sample. Such a typology could aid the development of treatment approaches that consider both the substance and the structure of an individual’s life course, rather than target one specific type of violence.
ISSN:0886-2605
1552-6518
DOI:10.1177/0886260509340537