Acute Stress Symptoms After Forcible and Substance-Involved Rapes

In the early aftermath of a sexual assault, survivors often experience symptoms of distress including reexperiencing, avoidance, and hyperarousal symptoms. However, less is known about associations between rape characteristics and the nature of early reactions. We designed the current study to exami...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychology of women quarterly 2019-12, Vol.43 (4), p.485-493
Main Authors: Jaffe, Anna E., Hahn, Christine K., Gilmore, Amanda K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aftermath
Avoidance behavior
Emergency services
Ethnicity
Feminism
Feminist psychology
Hyperarousal
Medical screening
Psychological distress
Psychology
Race
Rape
Sex crimes
Sexual orientation
Stress
Symptoms
Women
Womens studies
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Summary:In the early aftermath of a sexual assault, survivors often experience symptoms of distress including reexperiencing, avoidance, and hyperarousal symptoms. However, less is known about associations between rape characteristics and the nature of early reactions. We designed the current study to examine the unique and combined associations between use of force and substances during rape on acute stress symptoms. Participants were 56 women (ages 18–58) who completed a sexual assault medical forensic exam in the emergency department within 120 hours of the rape and then completed a follow-up clinical phone screening within 30 days of the forensic exam. Follow-up assessments included characteristics of the recent rape (force, substances), history of prior sexual assault, demographics, and symptoms of acute stress. Multivariate regression analyses revealed that, after controlling for prior sexual assault, sexual orientation, and race/ethnicity, there were no significant differences on any symptom cluster by rape type. However, this study involved a small, difficult-to-reach sample and, therefore, was only powered to detect large effect sizes. We encourage more research examining potentially unique, early symptom presentations for substance-involved rapes.
ISSN:0361-6843
1471-6402
DOI:10.1177/0361684319845099