Consequences and Protective Factors for Sexual Victimization Among Ethnically Diverse Women: An Online Study
Year: 2014
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: This study examined the relationships among ethnicity, childhood abuse, adult sexual victimization, negative outcomes of victimization, and factors that protect women against negative outcomes after experiencing these events. Three hundred and fifty four women (n = 354) from New Mexico completed an online survey asking them about their victimization history, ethnic identity, religious beliefs, and perceptions of their physical and mental health. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationships among variables. Hispanic and non-Hispanic white women did not report differential negative outcomes subsequent to trauma history and did not employ differential coping strategies in response to such a history. Higher posttraumatic growth was shown to moderate the influence of adult/adolescent sexual victimization on negative outcomes for both Hispanic and non-Hispanic white women. Religiosity was not found to be a protective factor for either Hispanic or non-Hispanic women. Acculturation had a mixed influence among Hispanic women, with perceived discrimination predicting worsened outcomes and low mainstream comfort predicting improved outcomes, subsequent to trauma history. These results suggest that further research should address the role of posttraumatic growth in women of differing ethnicities and that acculturation may play a complicated role in moderating negative outcomes after victimization.
Author: Rosa E. Muñoz
Language: English
Subfield: Gender Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2109053662