@article{ref1,
title="Symptoms and beyond: self-concept among sexually assaulted women",
journal="Psychological trauma: theory, research, practice, and policy",
year="2017",
author="Keshet, Hadar and Gilboa-Schechtman, Eva",
volume="9",
number="5",
pages="545-552",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: The unique characteristics of sexual assault (SA)-a toxic mix of an interpersonal harm, a violent exploitation of one's body, and a transformation of an act of connectedness into an act of submission-are postulated to negatively affect the self-concept. We sought to deepen the understanding of self-concept impairments among sexually assaulted women with varying levels of posttraumatic distress. To this end, we compared women with a main trauma of SA to women with a main trauma of motor-vehicle accident (MVA) and to nontraumatized (NT) women on several self-concept aspects. Our main hypotheses were (a) sexually assaulted women without PTSD exhibit impaired self-concept as compared with NT women and (b) SA is related to greater self-concept impairments as compared with MVA, even when posttraumatic distress is statistically controlled. <br><br>METHOD: Women (N = 235: NT = 69, MVA = 87, SA = 79) completed a web-based survey including measures designed to assess the global and domain-specific contents and structure of the self-concept as well as background and clinical questionnaires. <br><br>RESULTS: Sexually assaulted women without PTSD reported impaired self-concept as compared with NT women. Furthermore, SA was related to greater self-concept impairments as compared with MVA, even when considering participants' levels of posttraumatic distress. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: SA is related to unique self-concept impairments that extend beyond symptoms, emphasizing the need to assess and address self-concept impairments in sexually assaulted women. The importance of adopting a multifaceted conceptualization of the self to gain a deeper understanding of the aftermath of trauma is highlighted. (PsycINFO Database Record<br><br>(c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1942-9681",
doi="10.1037/tra0000222",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/tra0000222"
}