NCJ Number
218215
Journal
Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume: 12 Issue: 2 Dated: March-April 2007 Pages: 177-192
Date Published
March 2007
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This paper presents a coping theoretical framework for preventing sexual revictimization.
Abstract
The coping framework involves connections among three types of coping theory--adaptive, proactive, and resistive-defensive--relative to sexual revictimization. Research shows that adaptive strategies (e.g., problem-solving, seeking support, information-seeking, and gaining a sense of control over life events) are generally more helpful than maladaptive coping strategies, such as denial, disengagement, attention to negative affect, and substance abuse. According to Aspinwall and Taylor (1997), proactive coping involves five sequenced coping strategies: building interpersonal and intrapersonal resources for responding to threats; screening the environment in order to recognize potential threats; appraising potential threats; engaging in preliminary coping efforts; and evaluating the outcome of these efforts. Women who use resistance and defensive protective actions in order to physically resist sexual assault tend to escape or are subjected to less severe sexual abuse. Using the aforementioned three coping theories as a guide, prevention efforts should emphasize a variety of types of coping as well as the sequence of coping strategies. Within each overall coping strategy, victim-survivors must engage in a variety of coping types so as to manage the negative consequences of sexual victimization, as well as to reduce revictimization risk. Although the adaptive, proactive, and resistance-defensive coping strategies should be sequenced, victim-survivors may have different time frames for progression through the three types of coping, depending on the nature of the sexual victimization they experienced, as well as their individual circumstances, needs, and problems. This paper also addresses the limitations of the research on which the coping framework is based, as well as recommendations for future research that addresses these limitations. 86 references