This study explored the relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and sexual problems using data from a sample of 391 women in Charleston, South Carolina, who were interviewed about their history of crime victimization and mental health problems.
Subdivision of the sample resulted in 228 positive and 165 negative histories of sexual problems. These two groups were compared on several demographics, crime characteristics, and mental health variables. Variables significantly related to sexual problems included having experienced some form of criminal victimization, rape, physical injury during the crime, depression, and PTSD. Logistic regression analysis was conducted with these significant variables. The PTSD variable was entered into the regression model last and was found to contribute a significant amount of the variance after accounting for variance contributed by the other variables. This finding supported the hypothesis that PTSD may act as a moderating variable in the development of sexual problems in women with sexual and nonsexual trauma histories. The authors conclude study findings are largely consistent with learning theory models of post-traumatic adjustment and discuss clinical and research implications. 32 references and 6 tables