Participants and procedure

Data were obtained from the Sunflower Center of Southern Gyeonggi for Women and Children Victims of Violence at the Ajou University Hospital in Korea. The Sunflower Center is a government-sponsored center that provides victims of violence with medical care, social service, psychological support and criminal investigative services. At registration, victims signed consent forms for assessment. For this study, we investigated the records of 94 female victims who visited the Sunflower Center of Southern Gyeonggi for Women and Children Victims of Violence to receive services following sexual violence between December 2014 and November 2016.

Demographic characteristics and the features of the sexual violence were obtained from data recorded at the initial assessment. At the initial assessment, victims completed a self-report questionnaire to examine the severity of post-traumatic stress symptoms, and trauma-related cognition. One month after the initial assessment, victims were contacted by telephone and re-evaluated for the severity of post-traumatic stress symptoms.