NCJ Number
165890
Journal
Psychology of Women Quarterly Volume: 19 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1995) Pages: 5-29
Date Published
1995
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This study extended the findings of Gidycz et al. (1993) in examining the link among sexual victimization experiences among a sample of college women.
Abstract
Research has shown that sexual assault on college campuses is pervasive (Koss, Gidycz, and Wisniewski, 1987) and that a history of sexual victimization is a risk factor for future victimization (Gidycz, Coble, Lathan, and Layman, 1993). For this study, a total of 677 women who were introductory psychology students at a large, midwestern university were evaluated regarding the following variables: history of child and/or adolescent sexual victimization, specific family background variables, current psychological functioning, alcohol usage, and number of sex partners. These women were re-evaluated for adult sexual victimization, current psychological functioning, interpersonal functioning, and the number of sex partners at 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months after initial assessment. Nine months was selected as the follow-up time to complete data collection during one academic school year and thus potentially minimize participant attrition. The study design was cross- sequential, combining cross-sectional and longitudinal components. Loglinear analysis showed that changes of being victimized in one time period increased with greater severity of victimization in the preceding time period. The path analysis that assessed the mediating effects of the selected variables on victimization experiences partially supported the findings of Gidycz et al. (1993). In an explanation of these findings, the authors suggest that the young victim who may feel powerless to control what has happened to her, who has internalized feelings of unworthiness, and who additionally lacks the cognitive capacity to interpret correctly these traumatic events, may feel powerless to thwart others who try to harm her in the future (Chu, 1992; Finkelhor and Browne, 1985; Koss and Burkhart, 1989). 4 tables, 2 figures, 6 notes, and 50 references