Gold, S.D., Dickstein, B.D., Marx, B.P. & Lexington, J.M. (2009). Psychological outcomes among lesbian sexual assault survivors: An examination of the roles of internalized homophobia and experiential avoidance. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 33, 54–66.
This study explored the relations among internalized homophobia (IH), experiential avoidance, and psychological symptom severity in a community sample of 72 lesbian sexual assault survivors. Results indicated that IH is associated with both experiential avoidance and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity. In addition, experiential avoidance is related to bothPTSDand depression symptom severity.Finally, experiential avoidance completely mediated the relation between IH and PTSD symptom severity. The implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.