Violence against women is a major national health concern and a priority for nursing research. Approximately 1 in 4 women in the United States experience sexual violence (sexual abuse, rape) in adulthood, often resulting in significant physical and mental health consequences. The majority of women who experience sexual violence as adults are assaulted by men they know, usually intimately. If survivors of intimate sexual violence seek psychotherapeutic services to assist them with recovery, they often do so after the violence has stopped and yet little is known about how their everyday lives continue to be affected by their past experiences with intimate sexual violence. The proposed project is a qualitative study triangulating Heidegerrian hermeneutics and the grounded theory method to describe women's experiences of surviving and healing from sexual violence by male intimates.
The specific aims are: 1) from women who have experienced sexual violence within an intimate relationship in adulthood, obtain descriptions of the meaning of the violence in their current lives and their day-to-day experiences of being a """"""""survivor"""""""" of the violence; 2) analyze and present these descriptions using the hermeneutical method; 3) obtain descriptions of healing experiences from women who have experienced healing from sexual violence within an intimate relationship in adulthood; 4) construct a theoretical framework outlining the process of healing from intimate sexual violence using the grounded theory method; 5) combine the findings on surviving and healing to provide a comprehensive description of women's responses to the experience of living through intimate sexual violence; and 6) baked on the results of this project and current knowledge in the field, develop recommendations for nursing interventions for women who have survived intimate sexual violence in adulthood. This proposal also aims to enhance the development of the investigator as a nurse scientist with advanced skills in Heidegerrian hermeneutics and the grounded theory method and with expertise in the area of sexual violence against adult women. The investigator's long-term objectives are to develop and test psychotherapeutic nursing interventions for women who have experienced various types of interpersonal sexual victimization throughout the life-span (e.g., childhood sexual abuse, intimate sexual violence in adulthood).
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| Draucker, C B (1998) Narrative therapy for women who have lived with violence. Arch Psychiatr Nurs 12:162-8 |
