Moderating effect of hope and grit on the relationship between sexual assault and functional impairment

Abstract

Approximately one-fifth of female college undergraduates experience a sexual assault (DeCou, Kaplan, Spencer, & Lynch, 2019). This percentage increases to 33% when looking at a lifetime prevalence of sexual assault in women (DeCou et al., 2019). Previous research has shown that after experiencing a sexual assault, there are a variety of negative mental health outcomes that can occur, including depression, PTSD, and functional impairment (Tomasula, Littleton, Anderson, & Riley-Tillman, 2012). To our knowledge, no studies have been conducted to examine factors that have the potential to reduce functional impairment after experiencing a sexual assault.

The purpose of this present study was to examine the relationship between perceived sexual assault severity, functional impairment, hope, and grit. Participants (n=82) were primarily Caucasian females participating in research through Oklahoma State University’s SONA system. Participants were required to have a history of unwanted sexual experiences to be included in the study. Upon providing informed consent to partake in the study, participants completed questionnaires measuring hope, grit, functional impairment, psychological well-being, and various aspects of their assault—the particular item of interest being perceive assault severity. Results provided evidence to support previous findings that perceived sexual assault severity is positively related to functional impairment. Results further indicated that higher levels of hope and grit are negatively associated with functional impairment. Utilizing a bias corrected bootstrapping procedure, it was found that hope moderates the effect of perceived assault severity on impairment, whereas grit does not. These findings suggest that even with higher perceived sexual assault severity, high levels of hope can reduce the levels of impairment experienced afterwards. Therefore, these findings have potential implications for the improvements of therapy in which hope is a focal point of improvement within the individual to reduce the negative outcomes associated with sexual assault.