(PS12-C66) Sexual Victimization, Distress, and the Roles of Thought Accessibility and Emotional Avoidance

Sexual victimization is a significant problem linked to adjustment problems, and a number of factors mediate this relationship (Polusny & Follette, 1995). Experiential avoidance (EA; defined as the use of rigid cognitive, affective, and behavioral patterns to avoid negative internal events that elicit distress; Hayes et al., 1996) is one such mediator (Katz & Long, 2022; Gratz et al., 2007). Sexual victimization related (SVR) thought accessibility (i.e., how easily and quickly individuals can access thoughts related to victimization), may also help us to understand differences in the functioning of those with and without such victimization experiences. It is possible that SVR thought accessibility impacts adjustment through an impact on EA as well. This project tested a model in which the relationship between the experience of childhood sexual abuse or adult rape would predict adult distress through the effects of both SVR thought accessibility and EA.

Participants were 438 college women recruited from a psychology department research participant pool. Participants completed anonymous web-based questionnaires including the Life Experiences Questionnaire (childhood sexual abuse), Sexual Experiences Survey - Victimization Version Revised (rape), Multidimensional Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire (EA), and Brief Symptom Inventory (distress). A Word Completion Task (Schimel, Hayes, Williams, & Jahrig, 2007) was also administered which included 17 word fragments, 5 of which could be completed with SVR words (incest, abuse, fondle, molest, rape) or non-SVR (neutral) words (e.g., “M O _ E S T” could be completed with molest or modest). The proportion of SVR words identified as compared to the total words identified served as the index of SVR thought accessibility.

The effect of the predictor variable (sexual victimization history) on the criterion variable (distress) was examined through two proposed sequential mediators: SVR thought accessibility and EA. Analyses were conducted using Model 6 in PROCESS Version 4.2 (Hayes, 2022) with bootstrapping with 5000 iterations and a 95% confidence interval.  

Results of PROCESS revealed a significant direct effect of sexual victimization on distress alone (path a: β = 0.51, CI₉₅ [0.17, 0.45]) and with both mediators in the model (path a’: β = 0.45, CI₉₅ [0.15, 0.40]), indicating partial mediation. A significant indirect (mediational) path in which sexual victimization was predictive of greater distress through the effect of SVR thought accessibility was identified (partially standardized indirect effect = 0.05, CI₉₅ [0.007, 0.09]). Experiential avoidance directly predicted distress (path c: β = 0.49, CI₉₅ [0.47, 0.66]) (with no mediational role). Research and treatment implications will be discussed.