THE RELATION BETWEEN METHODS OF COPING DURING ADULTHOOD WITH A HISTORY OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE AND CURRENT PSYCHOLOGICAL ADJUSTMENT

With a community sample of 192 women who had been sexually abused duri ng childhood, the investigators determined if methods of coping in adu lthood with the aftermath of child sexual abuse were associated with c urrent symptoms of psychological distress. Multiple regression analyse s indicated that disengagement methods of coping with the sexual abuse accounted for unique variance in general psychological distress even after controlling for characteristics of the abuse and methods of copi ng with other stressors. Disengagement methods of coping were also use d more often to deal with the stressful aspects of having been sexuall y abused than to deal with other stressful events. In contrast, engage ment methods of coping were used more often to deal with the other str essors than with sexual abuse.