Measures

Background characteristics of participants and the sexual violence were obtained at the initial assessment. Assault-related factors including type of sexual assault, relationship with the perpetuator, repetitions of sexual assault, violence in the assault and photographs taken during the assault were investigated.

At the initial assessment, victims completed the post-traumatic cognitions inventory (PTCI) to assess trauma-related thoughts and beliefs. The PTCI consists of 33 items and uses. The PTCI produces three subscores based on the mean of items for each subscale: negative cognitions about the self (negative-self, 21 items), negative cognitions about the world (negative-world, 7 items), and self-blame for trauma (self-blame, 5 items). The PTCI subscales have good test-retest reliability (0.75–0.89), good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.86–0.97), and moderate-to-high correlations with post-traumatic stress symptom severity (Foa et al.20). The PTCI items were translated into Korean by the first author, and subsequently reviewed by a fluent bilingual psychiatrist with a PhD in psychiatry.23 Cronbach's α in this study was 0.96.

The PTSD symptoms scale, self-report version (PSS-SR), was administered at the initial assessment and 1 month later to assess the severity of post-traumatic stress symptoms. The 17 items of PSS-SR correspond to the Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms listed in the Criteria B items in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder 4th edition.24 The PSS-SR has an acceptable-to-good reliability and validity.19 Participants defined as belonging to the high-distress group were those participants having a high score on the PSS-SR at the initial assessment, i.e., scores higher than 20, cut-off score of PSS-SR.25 Participants having a score lower than 20 on the PSS-SR at the initial assessment were assigned to the low-distress group.