State vs. trait anxiety in sexually abused women: An exploratory study

Abstract

Childhood sexual abuse in adult women has many adulthood clinical manifestations, with one of them being anxiety. Adult women with histories of sexual abuse (n = 18) were compared to adult women without histories of sexual abuse (n = 19). The Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Anxious Self-Statements Questionnaire, and a sexual abuse questionnaire were used to obtain information about the past abuse and present anxious symptomology. Women with histories of sexual abuse had higher levels of state and trait anxiety, and had a higher incidence of anxious thoughts. Most women found the sexual abuse to be "very traumatic" at the time it was happening, and for some, the traumatic impact of the abuse had decreased over time. There did appear to be a relationship between the perpetrator, length of abuse, and severity of the abuse, although there were not enough women to calculate these differences.