Coping With Rape

Abstract

One-hundred-nineteen undergraduate females participated in a study examining the roles of child sexual assault, attributions, and coping on adjustment to rape. Participants completed anonymous questionnaires that assessed for child sexual abuse history, adult victimization history, attributions of blame for the adult assault, coping strategies for the adult rape, and trauma symptoms. Rape victims with a history of child sexual abuse were found to have higher levels of trauma symptoms, made greater use of nervous and cognitive coping strategies, and were more likely to make attributions of blame towards themselves or society. Current symptoms were related to types of coping and attributions of blame, with history of child sexual abuse having an indirect relationship to these variables. The results suggest the importance of attributional and coping variables, as well as child sexual abuse history, as mediators of postrape adjustment.