Abstract
Thousands of women and children experience sexual assault trauma annually in South Africa. The challenge posed by recovery from sexual assault trauma is a reality that confronts the survivors of sexual assault, their families and the larger community of service providers. Yet, little research has been conducted on recovery from sexual assault as a phenomenon. The purpose of the study was to explore and analyse the journey of recovery which is undertaken by women who have been sexually assaulted, with the aim of discovering and developing the grounded theory of recovery from sexual assault trauma within the first six months following the event of rape. The main research question was: What constitutes the journey of recovery undertaken by women within the first six months following sexual assault? A longitudinal qualitative study was conducted using the principles of grounded theory methodology as proposed by Strauss and Corbin (1990, 1998). A series of in-depth one-to-one interviews were conducted with a sample of ten women. The participants were selected through open, purposive and theoretical sampling procedures. The study was conducted over a period of six months following the event of sexual assault. The substantive theory was discovered and constructed through the inductive and deductive analysis of data, grounded on the ten women's descriptions of their journey of recovery from sexual assault. The theory of women's journey of recovery that was discovered and developed consisted of eight theoretical concepts or categories. These included the following concepts: 1. Sexual assault trauma 2. Awakening 3. Pragmatic acceptance 4. Turning point 5. Reclaiming what was lost 6. Defining own landmarks of healing 7. Readiness for closure 8. Returning to self. The grounded theory of the journey of recovery from sexual assault is a contribution to the knowledge about women's journey of recovery from sexual assault. It provides a process and language for understanding women's experiences within the larger social context of recovery from assault. The findings suggested that women's journey of recovery from sexual assault trauma is an individual experience that is influenced by many and varied causal and intervening conditions. These included personal biographies, relationships, supportive and non-supportive environments at individual, family, community and societal levels. Recommendations for future research and clinical management of sexual assault are made based on the researcher's interpretation of the findings.
Highlights
The purpose of this article is to describe women’s journey of recovery from sexual assault trauma. It is a theory of recovery from sexual assault trauma which was discovered and constructed through inductive and deductive analysis of data which was grounded on the ten w om en’s descriptions of theirjourney from sexual assault, using Strauss and C orbin (1990,1998) guidelines as a framework for conducting data analysis and other com plem entary qualitative research procedures in order to enhance the data analysis process and im prove the trustw orthiness of the data analysis
The main research question was: ‘W hat is the journey o f recovery that is undertaken by women within the first six m onths follow ing sexual assault?’ Another question that developed during data collection and data analysis was
The developed theory highlights the process and the interconnectedness of different stages of what the women experience in their journey o f recovery from sexual assault trauma
Summary
The purpose of this article is to describe women’s journey of recovery from sexual assault trauma. Mental paralysis was derived from two terms, “mental” which is defined as “of the m ind” and “p araly sis” w ith a figurative meaning relating to a state of utter powerlessness (The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, 1964:760, 880) Another participant described the same experience as follows: “I ju s t lay there motionless. The latter meaning was use to construct the concept ’awakening’ in the theory The subcategories under this concept include self-blam ing, blaming God for allowing rape to happen, guilty feelings and being blam ed, allowing someone to take control, conflict of beliefs, seeking help and selective disclosure, i.e. determining what to tell about the event of rape, how much to tell, who to tell and when to tell about the event of rape. I am not ready to tell my sister and her husband (who are like parents to me here in Western Cape) about H IV results
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