Negative sexual experiences and rape: understanding the relationship between adult and childhood sexual victimization and somatic complaints, psychological factors, and self-rated health in college women

Abstract

Sexual Victimization is a major issue in our society. The results of sexual victimization can persist throughout life and can be debilitating. Sexual victimization affects mental, sexual, and physical health. College women are one population at risk for sexual victimization. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between reported sexual victimization and somatic complaints, psychological factors (depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and perceived current stress), and self-rated health among college women. A 44 item web based survey was used for data collection. The study participants consisted of 480, mainly Caucasian, college women enrolled in Psychology 1000 at a southeastern U.S. university. Forty two percent (n = 204) of the study population reported a history of some form of sexual victimization. Participants with a history of sexual victimization were more likely to report mental health symptoms and symptoms of physical distress than those who did not have a history of sexual victimization. Participants with a history of sexual victimization, also, rated their mental health has poorer than those who did not have a history of sexual victimization. They were also more likely to complain of gastrointestinal symptoms, gynecological symptoms, dizziness, fatigue, chest pain, palpitations, dyspnea and trouble sleeping, than those with no sexual victimization history. In order for health care providers to provide comprehensive care to college women who have been sexually victimized, they must have an understanding of the relationship between sexual victimization and health complaints. The findings of the current study suggest that college women who have been sexually victimized, regardless of the age of victimization, have more physical health complaints, more distress from physical health symptoms, more mental health symptoms, and a lower perception of their mental health than those who have not been sexually victimized.