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. 2024 Aug 15:15:1370524.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1370524. eCollection 2024.

Linking alcohol-involved sexual assault to negative emotional outcomes: the relative mediating roles of shame, self-compassion, fear of self-compassion, and self-blame

Sherry H Stewart  1   2 , Noelle Strickland  2 , Raquel Noguiera-Arjona  3 , Christine Wekerle  4
Affiliations

Linking alcohol-involved sexual assault to negative emotional outcomes: the relative mediating roles of shame, self-compassion, fear of self-compassion, and self-blame

Sherry H Stewart et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Introduction: Alcohol-involved sexual assault (AISA) survivors who were drinking at the time of the assault may be at risk of internalizing victim-blaming myths and stigma. Cognitive-behavioral models posit the link between AISA and negative emotional outcomes may be explained through maladaptive appraisals and coping - i.e., characterological and behavioral self-blame, shame, low self-compassion (i.e., high self-coldness, low self-caring), and fear of self-compassion.

Methods: Using a cross-sectional design and community sample of younger adults (N = 409 Canadians, M = 28.2 years old, 51.3% women), we examined these mechanisms' unique effects in mediating the associations between AISA and posttraumatic stress, general anxiety, and depressive symptoms, respectively.

Results: In terms of gender differences, AISA was more common, self-coldness higher, and general anxiety symptoms more frequent in women, and fear of self-compassion was higher in men. Using structural equation modeling that controlled for gender and the overlap between outcomes, shame emerged as the strongest mediator linking AISA with all emotional outcomes. Fear of self-compassion also partially mediated the AISA-posttraumatic stress symptom association, self-coldness partially mediated the AISA-general anxiety symptom association, and characterological self-blame fully mediated the AISA-depressive symptom association.

Conclusion: Avoidance-based processes, ruminative-/worry-based cognitions, and negative self-evaluative cognitions may be distinctly relevant for AISA-related posttraumatic stress, general anxiety, and depressive symptoms, respectively, after accounting for the overarching mediation through shame. These internalized stigma-related mechanisms may be useful to prioritize in treatment to potentially reduce AISA-related negative emotional outcomes, particularly for AISA survivors with posttraumatic stress, general anxiety, and/or depressive symptoms.

Keywords: alcohol-involved sexual assault; anxiety; depression; fear of self-compassion; posttraumatic stress; self-blame; self-compassion; shame.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mediational model with stigma-related mechanisms simultaneously explaining the association between alcohol-involved sexual assault (AISA) and post-traumatic stress (PTS), general anxiety (GA), and depressive symptoms (N = 409). Rectangles: observed variables; ovals: latent variables. Gender was controlled but is not shown for simplicity. Effects: ß (SE), direct: (c’), total: (c), completely standardized indirect effect: (abcs) above each outcome. AISA, alcohol-involved sexual assault; CSB, characterological self-blame; BSB, behavioral self-blame; FOSC, fear of self-compassion; PTS, posttraumatic stress; GA, general anxiety; Sx, symptoms. Bolded effects, solid lines: significant (*p < 0.05). Model fit statistics: SRMR = 0.06, RMSEA = 0.08, CFI = 0.91, and X2/df = 3.40 (X2 [474, N = 409] = 1612.75, p < 0.001).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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