Gender, victimization, and outcomes: Reconceptualizing risk

Large-scale studies of gender differences in psychopathological reactions to victimization have focused on posttraumatic stress disorder, overlooking other trauma-related disorders. The present study expands this literature with a contextualized examination of interpersonal aggression exposure and sequelae. Using k-means cluster analysis on a sample of 16,000, the authors identified 8 distinct profiles of exposure to sexual violence, physical assault, stalking, and emotional abuse. Analyses of covariance then suggested links among victimization profile, gender, and mental and physical health. Results revealed no meaningful interactive effects of gender and interpersonal aggression on outcomes, once lifetime exposure to aggressive events was adequately taken into account. These findings argue against theories of female victims ’ greater vulnerability to pathological outcomes, instead linking risk to exposure history. Some have theorized that women may be more psychologically vulnerable than men after victimization (Breslau, Chilcoat, Kessler, Peterson, & Lucia, 1999), whereas others have contended that it is not gender but the type of event experienced that raises risk for psychopathology (Bromet, Sonnega, & Kessler, 1998; Wolfe & Kimerling, 1997). However, it is often difficult to test th