COPING STRATEGIES AS PREDICTORS OF DISTRESS IN SURVIVORS OF SINGLE AND MULTIPLE SEXUAL VICTIMIZATION AND NONVICTIMIZED CONTROLS

This study investigated the relationship between coping strategies and distress symptomatology in survivors of sexual revictimization. Copin g strategies were assessed with the revised Ways of Coping Scale (Aldw in & Revenson, 1987). Distress symptoms included global distress, depr ession, anxiety, and somatization. Subjects were 44 survivors of sexua l victimization in both childhood and adulthood; 54 survivors of a sin gle incident of sexual victimization in childhood; and 256 nonvictimiz ed individuals. All were drawn from a subject pool of female undergrad uate students. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant differences between groups on reported symptomatology and coping strat egies. Victimized groups reported more distress than did the nonvictim ized group. The multiple victimization group indicated greater use of coping strategies than did the nonvictimized group, and both victimize d groups reported greater use of the escapism strategy than did the no nvictimized group. Multiple backward regression analysis found that co ping strategies were predictive of distress symptomatology in all thre e groups, with escapism as the most potent predictor of distress for e ach group. Coping strategies were the most powerful predictors of dist ress in the multiply victimized group. The results of this study provi de strong support for the importance of addressing coping strategies i n clinical intervention of distress, particularly with survivors of mu ltiple sexual victimization.