Terri L Messman

Miami University | MU · Department of Psychology

Many men experience strong negative emotions and a “diminished masculinity” following sexual victimization. These men may be more willing to express anger, rather than more vulnerable emotions (e.g., shame), in an attempt to maintain their masculinity. However, increased expression of anger among men is linked to other negative outcomes such as inc...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) disproportionately affects women and has been linked to a range of negative psychological outcomes, including emotion dysregulation. Although IPV is often recurrent and tends to escalate in severity over time, few studies have examined the potential effects of recurrent experiences of IPV on emotion dysregulation. Th...

Bisexual+ (e.g., bisexual, pansexual, queer) women experience higher rates of sexual violence (SV) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than heterosexual and lesbian women, as well as unique identity-related minority stress. We examined between-and within-person associations between bisexual minority stress and PTSD symptoms related to SV in a...

Objective: Bisexual women experience disparities in alcohol use outcomes compared to both lesbian and heterosexual women. Bisexual women also experience higher rates of sexual violence (SV) and alcohol use following SV. We examined whether coping drinking motives mediate the link between adult SV severity and alcohol use and whether dimensions of...

The present study tested a model of suicidal thoughts among bisexual women focusing on sexual violence, bisexual minority stress, and risk factors for suicide identified within the interpersonal theory of suicide (i.e., perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness). The model was tested using cross-sectional, baseline data and longitudinally...

Objective: Bisexual women experience higher rates of sexual assault (SA) and posttrauma distress compared to monosexual women. We examined the patterns of reactions to SA disclosure (positive and two types of negative) and bisexual minority stress (antibisexual stigma from heterosexual and lesbian/gay people, internalized binegativity) experienced...

Bisexual women are vulnerable to experiencing both sexual minority stress and sexual objectification which may contribute to disordered eating. For instance, women may conceal their bisexual identity to prevent sexually objectifying experiences; yet identity concealment is related to psychological distress, and may relate to disordered eating. Iden...

Unlabelled: Excessive alcohol consumption and its consequences among college women continues despite prevention efforts. One common consequence, alcohol-related blackouts (ARBs), are period of alcohol activated anterograde amnesia. Objective: The purpose of the current project is to extend the ARB and drinking motive literature by examining thei...

Bisexual women experience higher rates of rape and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) prevalence compared to heterosexual and lesbian women. In addition, bisexual women experience unique antibisexual stigma and minority stress, which are associated with post-trauma outcomes. The aim of the current study was to test trauma-related shame as a mech...

Objective: Bisexual women experience disparities in sexual assault and in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to heterosexual and lesbian women. Bisexual women also experience unique stigma due to their bisexual identity (i.e., binegativity), which may contribute to negative outcomes. We examined the link between antibisexual stigma and s...

Introduction: Sexual abuse during childhood is associated with risk for sexual assault as an adult, known as revictimization. Although multiple experiences of sexual assault in adulthood are also common, it is unclear how risk trajectories might continue to evolve in emerging adulthood, defined as ages 18 to 25. Clarifying risk trajectories is imp...

Objective: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms have been associated with elevated rates of deliberate self-harm, including among women who have experienced sexual violence (SV); however, processes underlying this association have not been widely examined. Because a common function of deliberate self-harm is to reduce negative internal st...

Objectives Childhood sexual abuse is linked to long-term consequences, including depression and anxiety in adulthood. Although considerable progress has been made to understand mechanisms that may account for this relation, such as emotion dysregulation, less attention has been given to protective factors that may mitigate it. One such protective f...

Objective: This study investigated the impact of lifetime sexual violence exposure and probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on trait and state emotional responding among a sample of 169 community women. Method: Participants completed self-report measures of experiences of lifetime sexual violence and trait emotion modulation and emotional...

Bisexual women experience worse mental health outcomes than lesbian and heterosexual women, which may be explained by greater rates of sexual violence among bisexual women. The current comprehensive literature review aimed to synthesize research on mental health and substance use outcomes related to lifetime sexual violence among bisexual women. A...

The types of social reactions that victims receive when they disclose experiences of sexual assault are important for post-trauma recovery. Using a person-centered analytic approach, we identified latent profiles based upon the nature of two types of negative (turning against and unsupportive acknowledgment) and two types of positive (emotional sup...

Despite the clearly established link between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and emotion dysregulation, little is known about how individual symptoms of PTSD and aspects of emotion dysregulation interrelate. The network approach to mental health disorders provides a novel framework for conceptualizing the association between PTSD and emotion d...

Bisexual women experience higher rates of sexual victimization and mental health problems compared to heterosexual and lesbian women. Bisexual women also receive more unsupportive or overtly negative reactions when they disclose experiences of sexual victimization. The current study aimed to examine the interaction of negative social reactions and...

Objective: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression are highly prevalent among rape victims. Both blame (self-blame and victim-blaming responses to rape disclosure) and shame are frequently elevated among rape victims and contribute to PTSD and depression. However, it is unclear which type of shame is relevant. The aim of the current st...

Bisexual women experience high rates of sexual victimization, receive more negative social reactions from others upon disclosing experiences of sexual assault, and report greater hazardous alcohol use compared to heterosexual and lesbian women. The current study examined how experienced and internalized binegativity and bisexual identity affirmatio...

Women are at increased risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression associated with rape, and shame plays a vital role in the development and maintenance of PTSD and depression. Thus, there is a need to identify factors that may decrease shame among female survivors of adult rape. Self-compassion may be one such factor. The present...

Objective: Women who have experienced trauma report high rates of heavy episodic drinking (HED) and sleep problems. Prior work suggests that poor sleep exacerbates heavy alcohol use; however, potential mechanisms for this association are unclear. Consistent with the self-medication model, one possibility may be that women with a history of trauma a...

Past research has categorized the rape experiences of women attending college into types primarily based on perpetration tactics and/or survivor substance use. However, this practice may overlook key differences. Therefore, in the current study, we sought via latent class analysis (LCA) to identify types of rape using multiple assault characteristi...

Child maltreatment (CM) and adherence to masculine ideology has been linked to increased alcohol use and related problems. Although studies suggest up to 36% of men in the United States report CM, there is a dearth of outcome research on men’s CM experiences. Even fewer studies have examined how survivor’s perceptions of masculinity predicts substa...

Objectives Women are at increased risk for depression and anxiety associated with child maltreatment, given higher rates of exposure to childhood maltreatment and a greater sensitivity resulting in maltreatment-related distress. Thus, there is a need to identify mechanisms of resilience among female survivors of child maltreatment. Self-compassion...

In the current study, we examined how bisexual women’s unique experiences of sexual identity stigma might elevate their risk for verbal sexual coercion. Online survey data were collected from 350 self-identified bisexual women. Hayes PROCESS macro was used to test moderated-mediation and mediation analyses. Results indicated that anti-bisexual expe...

Background: Although individuals who experience childhood emotional maltreatment (CEM) are more likely to use maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, resulting in vulnerability to depression, no research has examined whether emotion dysregulation may explain the association between CEM and current depressive symptoms in a clinical sample of her...

Sexual abuse is a major public health concern with detrimental effects on both mental and physical health. Several studies have reported that victims of sexual abuse have a decreased ability to recognize risk in potentially threatening situations compared with nonvictims, although others were not able to replicate this finding. In addition, althoug...

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been linked to a wide array of risky and health-compromising behaviors, including risky sexual behavior (RSB). Cross-sectional studies reveal positive associations between emotion dysregulation and both PTSD and RSB. This study extended that work by exploring whether intermediate levels of emotion dysregulat...

Childhood abuse is a major public health problem that has been linked to depression in adulthood. Although different types of childhood abuse often co-occur, few studies have examined their unique impact on negative mental health outcomes. Most studies have focused solely on the consequences of childhood physical or sexual abuse; however, it has be...

One victimization experience can increase the risk for subsequent victimization, which is known as revictimization. The aims of this study were to build on sexual revictimization research by (a) broadening the understanding of revictimization to interpersonal (and potentially noninterpersonal) trauma generally and (b) gaining specificity in the mec...

Objective: Bisexual women report higher rates of sexual revictimization than their heterosexual and lesbian peers (Heidt, Marx, & Gold, 2005; Hequembourg, Livingston, & Parks, 2013), and limited research has examined risk factors for sexual revictimization among this population. The current study examined hazardous drinking use as a mediator of the...

Many women who disclose a rape encounter victim-blaming responses, which are associated with negative outcomes. The present study examined rape-related shame and experiential avoidance as mediators of the relation between victim-blaming responses to rape disclosure and depression among 103 rape survivors drawn from a community sample. Results revea...

Male sexual abuse has been associated with a number of maladaptive outcomes, however there is a dearth of research on male revictimization, that is, experiences of victimization in both childhood and adulthood. The current study examined different patterns of victimization based on five types of childhood maltreatment and characteristics of adult s...

Sexual minority women are more likely to experience negative mental health outcomes, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), than heterosexual women. Meyer’s (2003) minority-stress theory posits that this elevated risk of psychopathology results from stressors specific to the experience of holding a minority identity, and Hatzenbuehler (200...

Objectives: The aims of the present study were to investigate latent classes of sexual victimization among young adult women based on characteristics of their victimization experiences (e.g., relationship with the perpetrator, nature of act, frequency), and examine differences in dimensions of emotion dysregulation across these classes and among n...

Rape by an intimate partner frequently involves a precedence of sexual consent between victim and perpetrator, often does not include the use of physical force, and may not fit societal definitions of rape. Given these unique characteristics, women who are assaulted by an intimate partner may be less likely to acknowledge the experience as a rape....

Prior research has examined how posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms are influenced by the experience of different types of rape, defined according to the method of coercion used. This work, which classifies rape experiences as either forcible or substance-involved, has yielded mixed findings regarding differences in PTSD symptoms as a fun...

The current study explored the impact of voicing non-consent in relation to rape. Aims of the study included determining (a) the prevalence of voicing non-consent, (b) the relationship of voicing non-consent to verbal and physical resistance, and (c) whether voicing non-consent predicts distress and rape acknowledgment. Out of 262 college women who...

This study examines associations between women's alcohol intoxication at the time of sexual assault and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Drawing on the dual representation theory (Brewin, Gregory, Lipton, & Burgess, 2010), we hypothesized that intoxication at the time of assault would be positively associated with both overall symptom...

Recent evidence suggests a significant and unique effect of child abuse experiences on attachment-related anxiety and avoidance in adult romantic relationships, although mechanisms underlying this relationship have yet to be identified. The current study examined the relation between three forms of child abuse (sexual, physical, and psychological)...

This review examines posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to child maltreatment in adults, PTSD comorbidities, and complex PTSD, with a focus on emotion dysregulation. Adults maltreated as children report high rates of PTSD. Although all forms of child maltreatment are associated with increased PTSD risk, effects are stronger for child sexu...

Betrayal trauma theory proposes a relation between intimate partner violence (IPV) and dissociation, suggesting that dissociation among victims of IPV may function to restrict awareness of abuse in order to preserve attachments perceived as vital. We investigated two factors that may moderate the relation between IPV and dissociation-childhood sexu...

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychological condition that results from exposure to one or more traumatic events. The disorder is characterized by symptoms that involve reexperiencing the traumatic event, avoidance, changes in beliefs, and emotions, and heightened physiological arousal and related difficulties following the event. The l...

Individuals diagnosed with an anxiety disorder report more physical health problems than those without an anxiety disorder. Few studies have examined the relation of anxiety disorders to later physical health symptoms, or the processes that may explain this relation. One process of interest is experiential avoidance (EA), which is commonly reported...

Extant research on emotional lability in borderline personality disorder (BPD) has focused almost exclusively on lability of individual emotions or emotion types, with limited research considering how different types of emotions shift together over time. Thus, this study examined the temporal dynamics of emotion in BPD at the level of both individu...

Despite evidence of a relation between borderline personality disorder (BPD) pathology and physical health problems, the mechanisms underlying this relation remain unclear. Given evidence that emotion dysregulation may affect physical health by altering physiological functioning, one mechanism that warrants examination is emotion dysregulation. Thi...

Child sexual abuse and adult sexual assault have been linked to increased self-blame, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and alcohol use. The current study aims to examine (a) whether these constructs explain women’s risk for later adult sexual assault and revictimization, (b) whether such factors differentially confer risk for specific types of adult...

Re-victimization occurs when an individual experiences child abuse (sexual, physical, or psychological) and later victimization (rape, sexual assault, or domestic violence) during adolescence or adulthood. Re-victimized individuals present with a complex array of symptoms resulting from a cumulative impact of abuse, including chronic post-traumatic...

Difficulty controlling impulsive behaviors when experiencing negative emotions is a prominent risk factor for hazardous alcohol use, and prior research suggests that drinking to cope may mediate this association. The present study examines this possibility prospectively in a sample of 490 young adult women between the ages of 18 and 25. Participant...

The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) is a widely-used, theoretically-driven, and psychometrically-sound self-report measure of emotion regulation difficulties. However, at 36-items, the DERS may be challenging to administer in some situations or settings (e.g., in the course of patient care or large-scale epidemiological studies). Co...

Existing measures of emotion dysregulation typically assess dispositional tendencies and are therefore not well suited for study designs that require repeated assessments over brief intervals. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a state-based multidimensional measure of emotion dysregulation. Psychometric properties of the State Diffi...

Despite strong evidence for an association between the experience of posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms and substance use, little is known about the particular individuals most at-risk for problematic substance use in response to PTS symptoms. Consequently, the goal of this study was to conduct a prospective investigation of the moderating role of...

Data on risk perception, sexual victimization, and substance use were obtained via surveys from 496 female college students to determine what factors influence risk perception using a written vignette in which participants make a hypothetical decision to leave a potentially risky situation. Experiences of substance-related (SR) victimization, rathe...

Intimate partner aggression (IPA) has many detrimental effects, particularly among young women. The present study examined the longitudinal effects of IPA victimization and relationship status on physical health and depression symptoms in a sample of 375 community women between the ages of 18 and 25 years. All variables were assessed at 4 occasions...

To examine emotion dysregulation as a predictor of coping drinking motives, alcohol consumption, and alcohol-related problems among college women. In the cross-sectional study, 424 college women completed confidential surveys assessing the variables of interest. Structural equation models suggest an indirect relationship between emotion dysregulati...

The present study examined emotion dysregulation, coping drinking motives, and alcohol-related problems as predictors and consequences of alcohol-involved sexual assault (AISA). A convenience sample of 424 college women completed confidential surveys on paper and online. Data were collected at baseline (T1), weekly for 10 weeks (T2-10), and at 1 ye...

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with a proneness to unpleasant self-conscious emotions (SCE). Given that BPD is also associated with heightened rates of SCE-eliciting events (including unwanted sexual experiences), research examining the factors influencing SCE in response to these events is needed. This study examined associati...

Objective: The present study examined the relation of anxiety sensitivity to alcohol-related outcomes via coping drinking motives in college women. Further, the impact of emotion dysregulation on the mediational path between anxiety sensitivity and alcohol-related outcomes was investigated. Method: A sample of 223 female undergraduate drinkers f...

The current study examined sexual victimization and two barriers to young women's sexual assertiveness: fear of sexual powerlessness and cognitive emotion dysregulation. College women (N = 499) responded to surveys and indicated that fear of sexual powerlessness and, to a lesser extent, cognitive emotion dysregulation were barriers to sexual assert...

Dissociation involves retreating from the experience of the present moment through various processes, while mindfulness cultivates the ability to stay in the present moment. We argue that mindfulness is thus uniquely well suited for treatment of dissociation. This paper delineates the theoretical relationship between mindfulness and dissociation, d...

Two underlying mechanisms, emotion dysregulation and negative internalized beliefs, were examined as potential mediators of the association between childhood psychological maltreatment (PM) and depression in emerging adult women. PM was assessed as a multi-faceted construct including aspects of psychological abuse (e.g., corrupting) and psychologic...

Objective: Research indicates that alcohol consumption by college students fluctuates across the semester, with consumption changing because of social events and calendar holidays. In addition, some research indicates that Thursday alcohol consumption is a function of Friday course schedule. Students with courses after 10 a.m. or not at all on Fri...

A structural equation model examined sexual enhancement alcohol expectancies, heavy episodic drinking (HED), and risky sexual behavior as correlates of alcohol-involved rape in a sample of 353 college women. Prevalence of alcohol-involved rape was 15.6%. Sexual enhancement alcohol expectancies were indirectly associated with alcohol-involved rape v...

Objectives: Although numerous studies have documented linkages between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and later sexual revictimization, mechanisms underlying revictimization, particularly assaults occurring in the context of substance use, are not well-understood. Consistent with Traumagenic Dynamics theory, the present study tested a path model pos...

Incapacitated sexual assault (ISA) is the most common form of sexual victimization experienced by college women. Although ISA victims are at risk for future assaults, few studies have examined mechanisms responsible for ISA revictimization besides heavy drinking. Using a prospective design, the present study examined whether emotion dysregulation,...

The present study examined whether and which facets of emotion dysregulation serve an intervening role in the association between prior victimization and risk perception in an analogue sexual assault vignette. Participants were 714 university women who completed self-report measures of sexual victimization, emotion dysregulation, and a computer-adm...

In previous studies, number of sexual partners and sexual assertiveness were examined as independent risk factors for sexual victimization among college women. Using a sample of 335 college women, this study examined the interaction of number of sexual partners and sexual assertiveness on verbal sexual coercion and rape. Approximately 32% of the sa...

Previous research suggests that individuals abused as children are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior during adulthood. The present study examined early maladaptive schemas as mediators of the child abuse-risky sexual behavior relationship among 653 college women. Self-report surveys assessed three forms of child abuse: Sexual, physical...

The current study examined emotion dysregulation as a mechanism underlying risky sexual behavior and sexual revictimization among adult victims of child sexual abuse (CSA) and child physical abuse (CPA). Participants were 752 college women. Victimization history, emotion dysregulation, and risky sexual behavior were assessed with anonymous, self-re...

The present study reports on the development and initial psychometric properties of the Computer Assisted Maltreatment Inventory (CAMI), a web-based self-report measure of child maltreatment history, including sexual and physical abuse, exposure to interparental violence, psychological abuse, and neglect. The CAMI was administered to a geographical...

Child sexual abuse (CSA) has consistently been associated with the use of avoidant coping; these coping methods have been associated with increased trauma symptoms, which have, in turn, been linked to increased risk for adult sexual revictimization. Given these previous findings, the purpose of the current study was to test a model that conceptuali...

Recently, incapacitated rape has emerged as a distinct type of sexual victimization. However, little is known about its longer-term psychological consequences. Two studies compare the psychological consequences of incapacitated rape to those of forcible rape and verbal coercion. Generally, the traumatic impact of incapacitated rape was intermediate...

Male college students ( N = 395) completed anonymous surveys to report personal attitudes supporting sexual aggression and estimated the attitudes of their peers. Participants also indicated their willingness to intervene against a peer if they witnessed sexual aggression. Although both personal and peer attitudes were correlated with willingness t...

Using self-report questionnaires, symptoms of eating disorders were examined in relation to child sexual (CSA), physical (CPA), and emotional abuse (CEA), and adult rape among 301 college women. CPA and adult rape were associated with fear of fatness and bulimic behavior. CEA, family cohesion and expressiveness, and adult rape were related to diffi...

The present study utilized a mixed retrospective and prospective design with an 8-month follow-up period to test a model of revictimization that included multiple childhood (i.e., child sexual, physical, and emotional abuse) and situational variables (i.e., substance use, sexual behavior) for predicting rape among 276 college women. It was of parti...

An 8-month prospective study examined behavioral, personality, and psychological variables thought to increase vulnerability for college women's experience of rape and verbal sexual coercion. Participants were 276 college women who completed self-report surveys. During 1 academic year, 9.5% of women were raped and 11.7% reported verbal sexual coerc...

SUMMARY. The impact of childhood psychological abuse on adult interpersonal conflict was examined among 382 college women. Psychological abuse predicted adult interpersonal conflict above and beyond the effects of parenting behavior (i.e., parental warmth and control). The relationship between psychological abuse and conflict was mediated or partia...

Studies have documented the co-occurrence and cumulative impact of multiple types of child maltreatment on later psychosocial difficulties. Other research suggests that child abuse characteristics indicative of severity may also increase risk of later adjustment problems. However, little effort has been made to examine the co-occurrence of both mul...