The Impact of Sexual Victimization on Personality: A Longitudinal Study of Gendered Attributes |
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Authors: | Darcy McMullin R J Wirth Jacquelyn W White |
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Institution: | 1. Psychology Department, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 296 Eberhart Building, Greensboro, NC, 27402, USA 2. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
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Abstract: | Little is known about how sexual victimization may affect a woman’s self-reported personality ratings. In the present study endorsement ratings of gendered attributes, as measured by the Extended Personal Attributes Questionnaire, were examined over a 3-year span using multiple group latent growth modeling. Differences in the endorsement of gendered attributes between college female non-victims (N?=?158) and victims (N?=?158) of sexual aggression were tested. Whereas endorsement of communal and positive agentic attributes were stable across time, victims remained consistently less traditionally feminine (i.e., positively communal and nurturing) than non-victims. Victims also appeared to become relatively more self-focused (i.e., negative masculinity) across time than non-victims. This pattern suggests that sexual victimization may have lasting effects on victims’ ability to focus on the nurturing, trusting aspects of relationships; rather they have a preoccupation with their own needs and goals that appears to strengthen with time. Such a pattern sheds insight into how self-processes may contribute to the relationship difficulties often observed in sexual assault victims. Implications of these results for both personality and sexual aggression researchers are discussed. |
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