1 Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
J Interpers Violence. 2019 Oct;34(19):4020-4040. doi: 10.1177/0886260516673626. Epub 2016 Oct 17.
There are well-established associations between sexual assault victimization and deleterious psychological and physical health outcomes. The present study contributes to the emerging health disparities literature by examining similarities and differences in relationships between the severity of the sexual assault and health in a community sample of African American and Caucasian survivors. Although the overall pattern of relationships was expected to be comparable for all survivors, some associations were hypothesized to be stronger for African American survivors as compared with Caucasian survivors based on theories of chronic stress. Single, African American, and Caucasian women were recruited for a study of dating experiences through random digit dialing in one large metropolitan area. Participants who experienced a sexual assault since age 14 were included in this study (121 African American and 100 Caucasian women). Multigroup path analyses indicated that for both African American and Caucasian survivors, sexual assault severity was significantly positively associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and depressive symptoms were significantly positively associated with physical health symptoms. Among African American survivors, sexual assault severity affected physical health symptoms indirectly through its impact on depressive symptoms, and assault severity indirectly affected drinking problems through its impact on PTSD symptoms; these relationships were not found for Caucasian survivors. These findings highlight the need for additional research that focuses on health disparities in sexual assault survivors' recovery process, so that treatment programs address culturally relevant issues.
性侵犯受害者与不良心理和身体健康结果之间存在着既定的关联。本研究通过检查非裔美国人和白种幸存者群体样本中性侵犯严重程度与健康之间的关系的相似性和差异,为新兴的健康差异文献做出了贡献。尽管预计所有幸存者的关系模式总体上是可比的,但根据慢性应激理论,一些关联被假设为非裔美国幸存者比白种幸存者更强。通过在一个大都市区的随机数字拨号,招募了单身、非裔美国人和白种女性参加一项关于约会经历的研究。本研究纳入了自 14 岁以来经历过性侵犯的参与者(121 名非裔美国人和 100 名白种女性)。多组路径分析表明,对于非裔美国人和白种幸存者,性侵犯严重程度与创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)症状显著正相关,抑郁症状与身体健康症状显著正相关。在非裔美国幸存者中,性侵犯严重程度通过对抑郁症状的影响间接影响身体健康症状,通过对 PTSD 症状的影响间接影响饮酒问题;这些关系在白种幸存者中没有发现。这些发现强调了需要进行更多关注性侵犯幸存者康复过程中健康差异的研究,以便治疗方案能够解决与文化相关的问题。