Resilience in Sexually Abused Women: Risk and ProtectiveFactors

摘要

The goal of this study was to evaluate thecontribution of family characteristics (family conflict andcohesion) and abuse characteristics (age at which abuseoccurred, abuse severity, and relationship to perpetrator) toresilience (self-acceptance, ability to engage in positiverelationships with others, and environmental mastery) in asample of one hundred and 77 university women who hadexperienced childhood sexual abuse (CSA). The respon-dents completed a questionnaire that focused on childhoodexperiences including family environment in childhood,characteristics of the abuse they had experienced inaddition to degree of current resilience defined as theirlevel of well-being (self-acceptance, ability to engage inpositive relationships with others, and environmentalmastery). The results indicated that family characteristicsaccounted for 13-22% of the variance in the well-beingoutcomes. In contrast, abuse characteristics accounted for3% or less of the variance in the well-being outcomes. Theclinical implications of these findings are discussed.