ABSTRACT
Resistance and prevention programming aimed at strengthening women's ability to protect themselves against acquaintance sexual aggression has lacked attention to the cognitive and emotional processes women engage in when encountering such threats. Building upon current theory related to cognitive appraisal and coping processes, this study applies a theoretical model of how women evaluate and respond to sexual aggression by male acquaintances. Two hundred and two college women who had been sexually victimized by male acquaintances responded to a questionnaire that assessed their cognitive appraisals of and emotional and behavioral responses to the incident, in addition to aggression characteristics. Path analytic regression analyses examined theorized relationships among primary and secondary appraisal and emotional response variables in addition to their collective prediction of behavioral responding. The hypothesized model accounted for significant variance in behavioral responding and indicated different patterns of appraisals, emotions, and aggression characteristics predicting women's assertive and diplomatic behavioral responses to their assaults. These findings are consistent with research and theory related to individuals' appraisal of and coping with threatening events. Theoretical and intervention implications for resistance and prevention efforts are discussed.
Subject(s)
Adaptation, Psychological , Aggression , Interpersonal Relations , Sexual Behavior , Women/psychology , Adult , Emotions , Female , Humans , Male , Models, Psychological , Regression Analysis , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
Coping capacity, although increasingly implicated as a mediating force in how individuals respond to personal threat, is an underrecognized factor in work with women of abusive partners. To explore the utility of coping capacity as a multivariable set to guide intervention with women of abusive partners, findings are reported comparing four groups of women: those whose partners do not engage in abuse, are abusive toward them, are sex offenders of children for whom the woman is a parent, or are offenders of children for whom the woman is not a parent. Three variable sets were included: vulnerability factors that may negatively influence appraisals of threat and ability to cope with abuse; coping responses that include cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions to the abuse; and coping resources expected to mediate effects of vulnerability factors and to influence the mobilization (of lack thereof) of coping responses. There were significant differences in coping capacity profiles across the four groups. These appeared to be a continuum of coping capacity, with women who were most directly threatened showing the lowest and women who were least directly threatened showing the highest levels of coping capacity. In order from the lowest to the highest levels of coping capacity were (1) battered women, (2) women whose partners are offenders against their children, (3) women whose partners are offenders against children of whom they are not the parent, and (4) control group women. The paper ends with a conceptual interpretation of the mediating functions of coping resources and implications for intervention and further study.
Subject(s)
Adaptation, Psychological , Models, Psychological , Spouse Abuse/psychology , Adult , Child , Child Abuse, Sexual/classification , Child Abuse, Sexual/prevention & control , Child Abuse, Sexual/psychology , Depressive Disorder/complications , Depressive Disorder/epidemiology , Depressive Disorder/psychology , Educational Status , Employment/statistics & numerical data , Female , Humans , Income , Internal-External Control , Mothers/psychology , Risk Factors , Self Concept , Social Isolation , Social Support , Spouse Abuse/classification , Spouse Abuse/prevention & control , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
This paper describes a flexible, relational database management system designed explicitly with the needs and realities of social work in health care settings in mind. A variety of broad-based applications as well as organizational factors influencing implementation of automated information system are also discussed.
Subject(s)
Hospital Departments/organization & administration , Management Information Systems , Social Work Department, Hospital/organization & administration , Decision Support Systems, Management , Hospital Bed Capacity, 300 to 499 , Humans , Organizational Objectives , Planning Techniques , Quality Assurance, Health Care , Software , WashingtonABSTRACT
We present a new multidimensional measure of sexual activity and preference that may be of use to researchers and practitioners who work in clinical settings involving sex-related problems. The questionnaire contains six subscales to measure amounts of sexual activity and six subscales to measure degree of preference for those activities. The 12 subscales have good to excellent reliabilities, and they all appear to have content, construct, and factorial validity.
Subject(s)
Hospitals, Psychiatric , Mental Disorders/therapy , Adolescent , Child , Child Behavior , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Male , ParentsABSTRACT
Recent rapid and significant changes in the utilization patterns of emergency psychiatric services have culminated in markedly different patient profiles and intervention needs than those for which these services were originally intended. The resultant overextension and inappropriate utilization of the emergency unit have served to seriously jeopardize treatment efficacy and efficiency and to exacerbate the stress and difficulties associated with providing mental health intervention in an emergency room setting. Study findings of the patient profiles and patterns of use of emergency psychiatric services of a large metropolitan hospital are reported and examined in relation to these issues. Implications for a restructuring of treatment orientation and of the use of facility resources are discussed.