Influence of perceived social support on trauma among rape survivors

Pages: 1564-1567
Richa Nautiyal and A. Velayudhan (Department of Psychology, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu)

Rape is a crime of violence, often regarded by the woman as a life-threatening act in which fear and humiliation are her dominant emotions. It is an assault on the woman, her family as well as the community. Rape is not just a problem which affects India; it is something that is prevalent in all the sectors of society across the continents. There is also no denying the fact that it is one of the fastest growing crimes in India. According to the latest data of the Home Ministry, India stands third, leaving behind countries like Sri Lanka, Jordan and Argentina, when it comes to rape cases. India still has a prejudiced mindset regarding rape survivors and lacks the seriousness to tackle the problem in an efficient manner. The survivor may already have to fight feelings of being victimized, humiliated and traumatized due to the assault; On top of that, the judgmental attitude towards the issue of rape, often by the police, health systems, politicians, and the society doesn’t help them. It only adds to their anguish and sends them in a downward spiral. This study tries to understand to what extent perceived social support can influence a person’s perception of trauma. Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) developed by Zimet, Dahlam, Zimet, and Farley (1988) and Trauma Symptom Inventory by Briere (1996) were used on 50 rape survivors. The results and the conclusions were based according to the statistical analysis conducted.