Trauma and Adaptation in Severe Mental Illness
The Role of Self-Reported Abuse and Exposure to Community Violence
Published in: Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, v. 5, no. 1, Jan. 2004, p. 29-47
Posted on RAND.org on December 31, 2003
Read More
Access further information on this document at www.haworthpress.comThis article was published outside of RAND. The full text of the article can be found at the link above.
The authors examined the role of self-reported physical and/or sexual abuse and recent exposure to community violence on three adaptation outcomes in Severe Mental Illness (SMI): psychotic symptoms, demoralization, and substance abuse. One hundred and nine (109) individuals with SMI were administered an extensive protocol that included the pertinent variables. Structural Equation Modeling analyses indicated that abuse predicted psychotic symptoms and demoralization, whereas exposure to community violence predicted substance abuse. These findings point to different possible trauma-adaptation configurations, and suggest that both past and present trauma complicates the adaptation of people with SMI.
This article was published outside of RAND. The full text of the article can be found at the link above.
This report is part of the RAND Corporation external publication series. Many RAND studies are published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, as chapters in commercial books, or as documents published by other organizations.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.