Personality, coping, rape experience, and mental health functioning
Abstract (summary)
Rape is a prevalent interpersonal trauma among civilians that can have long-lasting significant consequences on many survivors. The negative impacts of rape on survivors have been established, but there are deficits in the literature with regard to factors that facilitate recovery from rape trauma. Further, the literature has identified mixed findings with regard to women who have an experience that meets the legal criteria for rape, but who do not identify their experience as such. Some research into the functioning of these victims (unacknowledged victims) has revealed evidence of traumatization, while other studies have found less traumatization among such victims than among acknowledged victims.
Similarly, certain personality factors have been established as being associated with poorer mental health functioning, while others are generally associated with better mental health outcomes. The Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality focuses on individual, internal characteristics that describe a person's habitual way of relating to the world, his or her cognitions, affective experience, and behaviors, while the Dependency model of personality describes personality through an individual's thoughts and feelings regarding interpersonal relationships and dependency. The FFM trait of Neuroticism is associated with poorer mental health functioning, and worse recovery from traumatic stress, while Extraversion is associated with better functioning, though there have been some conflicting findings with regard to the trait's role in recovery from traumatic stress. The dependent traits of Dysfunctional Detachment and Destructive Overdependence have been associated with poorer mental health functioning, while the trait of Healthy Dependency has been associated with better subjective well-being. This Dependency model has been infrequently assessed in traumatized individuals, which represents a deficit in the literature.
Also contributing to psychological well-being is an individual's preferred coping style. Avoidant coping is generally associated with worse outcomes and poorer recovery from traumatic stress. Finally, self-esteem has been shown to impact a person's mental health functioning, such that individuals with lower self-esteem have poorer mental health functioning.
The goal of the current study was to further expand the understanding of the relationship between personality variables, self-esteem, coping and the trauma of rape. To explore the relationship between rape conceptualization (acknowledged/unacknowledged) and mental health functioning variables this study also posed an exploratory question these relationships. One hundred six women from a variety of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds and of predominately college-age from two samples were asked to complete self-report measures assessing their personality characteristics, self-esteem, coping style, and trauma symptoms.
Factorial ANOVAs were conducted to investigate the relationships, and overall, the findings supported the prediction that rape experience is related to mental health pathology, and that personality characteristics (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Dysfunctional Detachment, Destructive Overdependence, and Healthy Dependency) are related to mental well-being in the general population and in traumatized individuals, as were individual characteristics such as self esteem and coping. The major findings show that these variables are often associated with healthy, flexible interpersonal functioning and/or positive emotionality, and negatively associated with a tendency toward negative emotionality. Both the personality variables of Neuroticism and Extraversion were found to have an impact on mood symptoms. Elevated Neuroticism was found to be related to elevated mental health pathology, while Extraversion was found to have a negative relationship with mental health pathology in the overall sample. In the traumatized sample the findings for Extraversion were mixed, as sometimes individuals with moderate levels had lower levels of certain symptoms. The findings demonstrate that a flexible use of social support, and a tendency to focus on positive affect are associated with better outcomes, while a rigid interpersonal dependency style and a tendency toward negative affect is generally associated with worse outcomes. This relationship was also found in traumatized survivors as well.
Additionally, the exploratory correlational analyses found that, in general, rape victims who acknowledged their unwanted sexual experience as rape had worse mental health functioning, but these women also reported healthier interpersonal functioning (higher HD) and higher levels of self-esteem than those women who did not acknowledge their assault as rape.
Indexing (details)
Clinical psychology;
Personality psychology
0622: Clinical psychology
0625: Personality psychology