The Cumulative Impact of Sexual Revictimization on Emotion Regulation Difficulties: An Examination of Female Inmates
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The present study examined associations between child sexual abuse (CSA), adult sexual victimization, and emotion regulation difficulties in a sample of 168 incarcerated women. Approximately 50% of the participants reported CSA, 54% reported adult sexual victimization, and 38% reported sexual revictimization (i.e., CSA and adult victimization). Revictimized women reported significantly greater difficulties with several facets of emotion regulation when compared to singly victimized and nonvictimized women. Interestingly, singly victimized women did not demonstrate greater emotion regulation deficits when compared to nonvictims. Findings suggest that the negative impact of victimization experiences on adult emotion regulation abilities may be cumulative. Furthermore, they highlight the potential importance of assessing and targeting emotion regulation difficulties among child abuse and adult sexual victimization survivors.
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Some prisoners may lack the intellect or insight to evaluate their internal states accurately.
“some prisoners may lack the intellect or insight to evaluate their internal states accurately (Walsh et al., 2011).”
From Group-based mindfulness interventions in prisons: a selective critical review (2024) · cites this paper as Walsh et al., 2011
The Discussion (page unavailable) reports that revictimized incarcerated women had greater difficulty identifying their emotions, which supports the possibility that some prisoners lack insight into their internal states. It does not attribute this difficulty to intellect or establish that prisoners evaluate their internal states inaccurately. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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- Authors
- Walsh, K., DiLillo, D., & Scalora, M. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Nebraska–Lincoln (US)
- Corresponding author
- Walsh, Kate
- Venue
- Violence Against Women
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2011-07-04
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1103-1118
- ISSN
- 1077-8012 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-8448
- PMC
- PMC3409092
- OpenAlex
- W2134350085
- Cited by
- 110
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 6.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Violence Against Women (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Lincoln (University of Nebraska) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- National Institute of Mental Health (F31MH081629)
- National Institute of Justice
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Sexual Assault and Victimization Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending
- Keywords
- sexual revictimization, child sexual abuse, emotional dysregulation, women prisoners, sexual trauma survivors
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Child, Emotions, Female, Humans, Prisoners, Sex Offenses, Social Control, Informal, Crime Victims, Criminals
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