| In the present study, 62 females reporting a history of sexual trauma and 52 females reporting no sexual trauma history were compared on perceived intimacy, sexual satisfaction, and religious coping. The Web-based correlational study included questions regarding negative sexual experiences, the Miller Social Intimacy Scale (MSIS), Inclusion of Other in the Self Scale (IOS), Golombok-Rust Inventory of Sexual Satisfaction (GRISS), and the Brief RCOPE. Hypotheses for the current study were not supported; however, there were some noteworthy findings. Results suggested a compensatory model of coping: that the women who had negative sexual experiences increase in their tendencies to engage in benevolent religious coping as their likelihood for intimacy decreases. It was also suggested that as women who experienced sexual trauma increase in their use of negative religious coping techniques, the more likely it is that their sexual problems will decrease. It is possible that the direction of the model is backwards- that sexual problems lead to religious coping, or that some third unmeasured variable is causing covariance between these variables. Also, women with no negative sexual experiences tended to use negative religious coping techniques to some degree significantly more than women survivors of sexual trauma, again supporting a compensatory model. Several limitations need to be taken into account. Future research may replicate this study to include revised models, measures with greater validity and reliability, and a better sampling. |
