RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Rape trauma contributes significantly to the mental burden of disease, affecting resilience and vulnerabilities at every developmental life stage. Appropriate resilience-promoting strategies could potentially buffer or protect trauma-exposed individuals from psychopathology. AIM: This study aimed to assess and compare (using validated measuring instruments) resilience, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other variables in the acute aftermath of rape, between adolescent and adult females and to assess associations with these variables. METHOD: We conducted a comparative analysis of resilience, PTSD, prior trauma, demographic variables and psychiatric morbidity in 41 adolescent and 47 adult female rape survivors six weeks post-rape. We assessed the relationship of resilience to PTSD, demographic variables and prior trauma and investigated if resilience levels predicted PTSD after adjusting for prior trauma. RESULTS: We found no significant differences in resilience levels between the groups, but the adolescent PTSD rate (40%) was double that in adults (20%). In adults, a significant negative correlation was evident between resilience and PTSD symptoms scores. CONCLUSION: More knowledge of resilience versus stress susceptibility for PTSD throughout the lifespan is needed and can inform the development of more effective clinical assessment and resilience-promoting strategies.
