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Child Maltreatment
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How Does Trauma Beget Trauma? Cognitions about Risk in Women with Abuse Histories

Daniel W. Smith

National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, Medical University of South Carolina

Joanne L. Davis

University of Tulsa

Adrienne E. Fricker-Elhai

University of South Dakota School of Medicine

This study examined the associations between perceived risks and benefits of drug use, unsafe sexual behavior, alcohol consumption, and aggressive/illegal behavior and reports of expected involvement in those behaviors in a sample of 340 college women with and without histories of interpersonal victimization (i.e., child sexual abuse, child physical abuse, adult sexual assault, and aggravated assault). Trauma victims reported greater perceived benefits and lower perceived risks associated with risky sexual behavior, illicit drug use, and heavy drinking, but not aggressive/illegal behavior than nonvictims. Victims also reported greater expected involvement in risky sex behavior, drug use, and heavy drinking. Regression analyses revealed that the relationship between victim status and expected involvement in risky behaviors was mediated by cognitions about risks and benefits of risky behavior, controlling for trauma-related symptoms. Implications of the findings for the understanding of repeat victimization are discussed.

Key Words: trauma • risk taking • cognitive appraisals • repeat victimization

Child Maltreatment, Vol. 9, No. 3, 292-303 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/1077559504266524
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