NCJ Number
207458
Journal
Journal of Child Sexual Abuse Volume: 13 Issue: 2 Dated: 2004 Pages: 85-103
Date Published
2004
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This study of a group of sexual abuse victims and controls focused on whether spirituality moderated the association between sexual trauma and psychopathology.
Abstract
The sexual trauma group (n=71) consisted of women who had been sexually abused in childhood (n=25), women who had been raped as adults (n=21), and women who had been both sexually abused as children and raped as adults (n=25). The control group consisted of women who had not experienced childhood sexual abuse or rape as adults. The control and trauma groups did not differ significant in prior or current treatment status. Participants were administered the JAREL Spiritual Well-being Scale, which assesses the nature and depth of commitment to spiritual beliefs. Other testing included the eating disorder examination, the structured clinical interview for DSM-IV axis I disorders-Patient Edition, and the Modified PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) Symptom Scale-Self-report. A hierarchical multiple regression approach was used to analyze the effects of trauma and spirituality on continuous measures of psychopathology. Sexual trauma status was most strongly associated with PTSD, accounting for 28 percent of the criterion variance, with eating disturbances and mood disorders also linked to sexual trauma. The women with higher levels of spiritual well-being displayed lower levels of PTSD, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and eating disorders regardless of the nature of the sexual trauma; however, among sexual trauma victims, the level of spiritual well-being did not alter the probability of current psychopathology. Study limitations and future research are discussed. 5 tables and 47 references