Childhood sexual abuse is a pernicious problem that is frighteningly common in our society, as when abuse is defined as fondling and intercourse by a person at least five years older than the victim, about 20% of children in the United States are abused. One factor that is typically related to childhood sexual abuse is the experience of multiple victimizations or what some researchers term revictimization, a phenomenon which has strong empirical support in the literature. There is some research to suggest that the coping mechanism of dissociation is related to revictimization. Becker-Lausen, Sanders, and Chinsky (1996) conducted the only study that empirically tested the link between dissociation and revictimization using path analysis and found that childhood abuse was related to dissociation and depression as well as negative life experiences. A study was formulated to explore this link between dissociation and revictimization in-depth with a theoretical model. The factors in the model are processing into consciousness, memory, self-esteem, and learned helplessness. Subjects were female undergraduates, 60 subjects with a childhood sexual abuse history and no adult victimization experience, and 60 with childhood sexual abuse and adult victimization. Processing into consciousness, was measured by scenarios of abusive situations and non-abusive scenarios, after which the subjects filled out measures of affect. Memory was measured by autobiographical memory during which subjects were asked to recall their memories that are provoked by a prime. They were also given measures of self-esteem, learned helplessness, dissociation. Significant results were found for all for four factors and dissociation. Socio-economic status was used in the analysis, but was not related to this factors. Clinical implications for this research effort are outlined in the study. In conclusion, it may be that childhood abuse causes dissociation which leads to revictimization by the four factors in the model. However, this causality cannot be ascertained from the this research study. Further research using a prospective design is needed.

The objective of this study was to explore the role of various barriers to mental health treatment among an ethnically diverse sample of women with serious mental illness. Although women have higher rates of initiating treatment than men (Sussman, Robins, & Earls, 1987), they may be more likely to prematurely terminate therapy (Klein, Stone, Hicks, & Pritchard, 2003), and they contend with unique barriers to effective treatment (APA, 2002, p. 28). Likewise, ethnic minorities in America face unique cultural barriers to care, and though minority groups have similar rates of mental illness, they are less likely to obtain appropriate treatment (Kessler et al., 1996). This cross-sectional study explored the hypotheses that there are differences in the amount and types of barriers reported by Ethnic minority and Caucasian women with serious mental illness, and that greater barriers will predict poorer ratings of working alliance. Participants were 64 women receiving outpatient psychiatric services at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center in Boston. They completed the Barriers to Treatment Participation Scale, Symptom Checklist 90-R, Working Alliance Inventory, and Client Satisfaction Questionnaire. Contrary to the predictions, there were no significant differences between the Caucasian and Ethnic minority women in the amounts or types of barriers endorsed, and the barriers measure did not predict ratings of alliance. The findings and recommendations for further research are discussed.

Return to education is as an intervention in the life course that produces changes in sense of self and relationship. This study investigated the subjective experience of adult women who returned to school and completed an undergraduate degree after age 25. Thirteen women who returned to school and earned a Bachelor's degree were interviewed at least two years after graduation; their retrospective evaluations and understandings of changes initiated by return to school constituted a perspective missing from the literature. Analyses of interview themes were based on the principles of grounded theory. Relationships between codes representing participants' experiences were investigated to understand motivation before returning, experiences while in school, including stress, coping, and support, and evaluations at interview of change and stability in perceptions of senses of self and relationships with others. There was considerable support for the idea that education fostered developmental progression, rather than developmental stagnation or regression, in terms of increased capacity for independence and individuation, and in terms of increased capacity for relatedness and connection. Further, the perspective of retrospect and a qualitative approach added considerable richness and depth to understandings of experiences of return to education.