Women, Abuse, and Suicide: Investigating the Links - Essay Sample

Summary of the Article

The research sorts to studying the short term as well as the long-term consequences of physical and or sexual experience on women. The research looks at these two types of abuse in relation to increased risks of the development of psychological disorders and attempting suicide. The primary purpose of the article is to investigate if there exists a relationship between abuse experiences, attitudes about life and death, and suicidal ideation. The population target was 644 college women aged 13 to 24 years. The started concluded that abuse plays a role in how women think about life and death.

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After the initial screening, 710 students were selected and divided into four groups; CSA (Child Sexual Abuse), ASA (Adult Sexual Abuse), CPA (Child Physical Abuse), and APA (Adult Physical Abuse). Later the groups were collapsed to create four main; those who only experienced sexual abuse, SA; n=112, those who only experienced physical abuse PA; n=74, women who had experienced both abuse CA; n=52, and women with n history of abuse NA; n=406, for the sake of data completion. The final sample comprised of 644 young women of age 18 to 24 years. White women dominated the sample (66) followed by black women (20), Latinos (6) and Asians Americans at (6).

Childhood Sexual Experience (CSEQ) - applied Finkelhor's 1979 Survey of Childhood Sexual Experience to assess child sexual abuse followed by a series of subsequent follow-ups questions for further clarification for group category. Adult Sexual Experience Questionnaire (ASEQ) - the researchers applied a modified version of Finkelhor's 1979 identical to CSEQ, but participants are questioned about forced sexual encounters after 15 years of age. Childhood Physical Experience Question (CPEQ) - the article applied a modified Milner et al.'s (1990), in which participants were provided with CHQ list of abusive physical encounters varying from regular canning to bone fractures and requested to highlight the extent of their experience when it happened while under 15 years of age. The options available were, never, rarely, occasionally, often, or very often. APEQ- both CHQ and Frankelhor's (1979) were administered to assess physical abuse in adults, identical to CPEQ, but participant only answered physical abuse experienced after 15years of age. MAST- the article used a self-reporting measure to examine four conflicting attitudes to death and life. MAST-AL (attraction to life), MAST-RL (repulsion to life), MAST-AD (attraction to death), and MAST-RD (repulsion to death). The MAST item is scaled on a five-point rate from strongly agree (1) to disagree strongly (5). ASIQ- a 25 item self-reporting scale of severity of suicidal ideation in adult of 18 years and above.

The article is composed of three continuous variable or independent variables, namely, abuse experience, attitude about life and death, while the changing variable is suicidal ideation. The study was structured professionally as the research was ethical, and the data collected was not cooked or tampered with. From sample selection to data collection and interpretation were all done using the right manner. Also, the study had external validity as its findings related in a way that corresponds to the real world.

Overall assessment of the study is that it explored a gap that had been untouched by several scholars and provided new and useful information in the relation between physical and or sexual abuse and suicidal ideation. The author acknowledges several limitations that the research experience, such as their heavy reliance on retrospective data on abusive experience, thus limiting the variance in suicidality and abuse status. However, through its findings, the study highlighted that as young women experience more forms of abuse, the higher their likelihood to experience suicidal ideation as well as unhealthy attitudes towards death and life.