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Biomedical subjects

M P Koss

Publications and source records attributed to M P Koss.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

Predictors of long-term sexual assault trauma among a national sample of victimized college women.

Several multivariate studies have attempted to delineate the major predictors of long-term, sexual assault-induced aftereffects. The present study was an attempt to extend previous work by supplementing known preassault, assault, and postassault predictors of trauma with cognitive measures. The data were cross-sectional and included responses from 1,213 victims of sexual assault who were recruited from a national sample of higher education students. Utilizing hierarchical multiple regression analyses and a cross-validation procedure, the results suggested that the prior mental status of the victims, the forcefulness of the assaults, as well as two cognitive variables related to a victim's beliefs about sex and relationships predicted victims' scores on standardized measures of anxiety and depression. The relationships were such that the most traumatized victims were those women who had evidenced a history of mental health problems, who had experienced the more aggressive assaults, who tended to believe that people in relationships are not trustworthy, and tended to place conservative restrictions on the sexual acts and circumstances under which sex should occur. Taken together these variables accounted for between 9%-14% of the variance in sexual assault aftereffects. The discussion emphasizes the contribution of cognitive processes to the understanding of sexual assault trauma.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Courtship violence: incidence in a national sample of higher education students.

An approximately representative national sample of 2,602 women and 2,105 men was surveyed regarding their frequency of inflicting and sustaining verbal and physical aggression in a heterosexual relationship. Results revealed that approximately 81% of the men inflicted, as well as received, some form of verbal aggression at least once, while the comparable figure for women was 87-88%. The percentage experiencing some form of physical aggression was lower; about 37% of the men and 35% of the women inflicted some form of physical aggression and about 39% of the men and 32% of the women sustained some physical aggression. No differences were found as a function of ethnicity, family income, and institutional characteristics. Regional differences in the use of verbal and physical aggression, and in the receipt of physical aggression, were found for men.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Deleterious effects of criminal victimization on women's health and medical utilization.

The long-term consequences of criminal victimization on physical health were examined among 390 adult women (74 nonvictims and 316 victims of crime). Data included health status self-ratings and objective service utilization. Findings indicated that severely victimized women, compared with nonvictims, reported more distress and less well-being, made physician visits twice as frequently in the index year, and had outpatient costs that were 2.5 times greater. Criminal victimization severity was the most powerful predictor of physician visits and outpatient costs. Utilization data across 5 years preceding and following crime were obtained from 15 rape victims, 26 physical assault victims, and 27 noncontact crime victims and were compared with five continuous years of utilization among 26 nonvictims. Victims' physician visits increased 15% to 24% during the year of the crime compared with less than 2% change among nonvictims. We conclude that these long-term deleterious effects suggest that criminally victimized women's needs for medical treatment transcend the traditional focus on emergency care and forensic evaluation.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

The women's mental health research agenda. Violence against women.

The focus of this article is violence against women: scope, impact, community response, clinical treatment, and prevention. Conclusions include the following: (a) Nationally representative data on the scope of violence are lacking. (b) The mental health implications of violence are not currently addressed by the practices of mental health professionals. (c) Discontinuity exists between clinical understanding of the impact of violence and empirical treatment research. (d) Victim services are proceeding in program development without direction from empirical data. (e) Prevention efforts have been isolated from the social context in which violence against women occurs. Nine directions for future research are highlighted that intersect with the stated priorities of the National Institute of Mental Health.

Community Health Services↗
PubMed1990

Relation of criminal victimization to health perceptions among women medical patients.

The relation of criminal victimization to health perceptions (self-rated current health) was determined among women health maintenance organization patients. Data were survey responses from 2,291 women (45% response rate), 57% of whom had experienced crime. Reliability was evaluated by assessing 241 respondents both by survey and by interview. Data were analyzed by hierarchical multiple regression, which indicated that criminal victimization was an important predictor of health perceptions even after accounting for the contributions of demographics and other stressful life events with known links to illness. Validity was supported because medical care was actually sought by 92% of crime victims during the 1st year following the crime and by 100% during the 2nd year. Conclusions included the following: (a) Crime victimization history is relevant to health status assessment, and (b) primary care medical populations are an important locus from which crime victims could be identified and their treatment options considered.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Discriminant analysis of risk factors for sexual victimization among a national sample of college women.

Examined the accuracy with which rape and lesser sexual assaults were predicted among a representative national sample of 2,723 college women. A total of 14 risk variables operationalized three vulnerability hypotheses: (a) vulnerability-creating traumatic experiences, (b) social-psychological vulnerability, and (c) vulnerability-enhancing situations. Each hypothesis was tested individually, and a composite model was developed via discriminant analysis. Only the traumatic experiences variables clearly improved over the base rates in identifying rape victims, but risk variables from each vulnerability hypothesis met criteria for inclusion in the composite model. A risk profile emerged that characterized only 10% of the women, but among them the risk of rape was twice the rate of women without the profile. The concept of traumatic sexualization was used to explain this finding. However, the vast majority of sexually victimized women (75-91%) could not be differentiated from nonvictims.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

The impact of adolescent sexual victimization: standardized measures of anxiety, depression, and behavioral deviancy.

Standardized measures of depression, anxiety, and behavioral deviancy were administered to a nonclinical sample of 67 high school girls (M age = 16.3; SD = 1.28). In addition, an adolescent version of the Sexual Experiences Survey was administered to assess the history of peer sexual victimization. In this sample, 55.0% of the girls had experienced at least one sexual victimization, including 7.5% of them who had experienced completed forcible rape. Data were analyzed via multivariate analysis of variance and multiple regression. Sexually victimized girls scored significantly higher than nonvictimized girls on the Trait Anxiety Index and the Beck Depression Inventory, but not on the Antisocial Index of the Jesness Inventory. The extent of victimization contributed significantly to the prediction of both the depression score and the anxiety score. The clinical significance of the reported symptoms is discussed. Although the study was not based on a probability sample, the prevalence of rape was consistent with existing literature. Because the sample was limited to girls who have remained involved in social systems, the measured symptoms probably are a conservative estimate of retrospectively measured postassault standardized test scores among sexually victimized adolescents.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Predictors of sexual aggression among a national sample of male college students.

An approximately representative national sample of 2,972 male students at 32 U.S. institutions of higher education was surveyed regarding their use of several degrees of verbal coercion and physical force to obtain sexual intimacy with women without consent. The most severe form of sexual aggression each man reported was used to classify him into one of five groups: sexually nonaggressive, sexual coercion, sexual contact, attempted rape, or rape. Respondents also provided data that was grouped into three blocks of variables: early experiences (family violence exposure, childhood sexual abuse, age of sexual initiation), psychological characteristics (MMPI Scale 4, Hostility Toward Women, rape supportive beliefs, gender role orientation), and current behavior (alcohol use, pornography use, male bonding, sexual values and activity, conflict tactics). Data were analysed via blockwise discriminant function analysis. Variables were entered following a suggested development sequence. Specifically, all early experience variables were entered first as a block. Then the entire set of psychological characteristics were entered stepwise followed by all the current behavior variables. Variables from all three blocks entered the model. The classification rates have been discussed and the implications of the analyses for future causal models of male sexual aggression considered.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Outcome of eclectic psychotherapy in private psychological practice.

The outcome of eclectic psychotherapy in a private psychological practice was examined in 69 clients. Target symptoms, life-adjustment ratings, social-adjustment ratings, and therapy expectancy were obtained before and after four months of psychotherapy from clients, therapists, and independent clinical raters. Results indicated that significant change had occurred after four months of psychotherapy for 6 of 10 categories of target complaints, in 9 of 11 areas of life adjustment and in 14 of 22 areas of social adjustment. Overall, 70 percent of clients showed improvement in their symptoms; 14 percent were unchanged and 17 percent deteriorated. The major value of the study is an exploration of psychotherapy outcome under naturalistic conditions in a growing but rarely studied treatment setting.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

A multivariate analysis of long-term stay in private practice psychotherapy.

Investigated the characteristics predictive of long-term stay in private practice psychotherapy in a population of 64 "long-term" clients (remained longer than 25 sessions, mean = 47 sessions) and 88 "short-term" clients (terminated before 25 sessions, mean = 7 sessions). Data consisted of T-scores on the intake MMPI and two variables (possession of insurance coverage and use of psychoactive medication) on which long and short-term clients had been found to differ in other research. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed and revealed that MMPI scales 2 and 0 added to the prediction of length of stay in psychotherapy (p < .01). Insurance and medication were significant predictors only when MMPI data were not used.

Humans↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The prevalence rate of sexual trauma in a primary care clinic.

BACKGROUND: Despite the high prevalence rate of sexual victimization in the general population, little is known about the characteristics of abuse victims in primary care. We studied the prevalence rate of childhood and adult sexual trauma in a primary care clinic, associated psychological distress, and patients' attitudes about physician inquiry into past sexual victimization. METHODS: Self-report questionnaires were given to 162 women in a primary care clinic inquiring about past episodes of childhood sexual abuse, adult sexual assault, and patients' desire that their physicians be aware of their sexually traumatic experiences. The women also completed the Trauma Symptom Checklist-40 (TSC-40), a measure of psychological distress. RESULTS: The rates of childhood sexual abuse (37 percent) and adult sexual assault (29 percent) in this primary care clinic were comparable with, but somewhat above, the rates reported for the general population. Although most of the women (61 percent) believed it was appropriate for their physician to ask about previous victimization, only 4 percent had been asked. Women who had experienced sexual trauma were more distressed when compared with nonvictimized women, as measured by the TSC-40. Childhood sexual abuse was associated with greater distress than was adult sexual assault, and combinations of childhood and adult trauma were associated with the highest distress levels. CONCLUSIONS: A history of sexual abuse or assault can be a relatively common finding in primary care clinics. Patients might benefit from routine physician inquiry into histories of childhood and adult sexual victimization, and physicians should be mindful of the long-term medical and psychological sequelae that frequently result from this trauma.

Adolescent↗