ArticleBMC women's health2014
Mental health of victims of sexual violence in eastern Congo: associations with daily stressors, stigma, and labeling.
Article in BMC women's health, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 93 citations in OpenAlex.
- The prevalence of sexual violence against African women: a systematic review and meta-analysis.African health sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Sexual violence against women remains problematic and highly prevalent around the world.BMC women's health · 2023Pooled it
- National and regional prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Longitudinal Investigation of Stigma and Psychosocial Outcomes Among Women Exposed to Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.Violence against women · 2026Article
- "The unheard adversity": the lived experiences of socially isolated survivors of wartime sexual assault.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Mental health outcomes, literacy and service provision in low- and middle-income settings: a systematic review of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Npj mental health research · 2024Review
- Self-stigma mediates the relationships between childhood maltreatment and symptom levels of PTSD, depression, and anxiety.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2024Article
- Magnitude and factors associated with sexual re-victimization among adolescent girls and young women in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo: a retrospective multicenter study.Reproductive health · 2023Article
- Rape survivors' experience in Tigray: a qualitative study.BMC women's health · 2023Article
- In between the lines of the narrative map: Phenomenological analysis of war rape victims in Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia.PloS one · 2023Article
- Mapping the disparities in intimate partner violence prevalence and determinants across Sub-Saharan Africa.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Overdose Experiences among People Who Inject Drugs in West Virginia: Personal Loss, Psychological Distress, Naloxone, and Fentanyl.Substance use & misuse · 2023Article
- Multiyear, Multisectoral Training Program in Kenya to Enhance Medical-Legal Processes in Response to Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.Violence against women · 2022Article
- The end of the trial: Perspectives on cognitive processing therapy from community-based providers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.Journal of traumatic stress · 2022Article
- Measuring sexual violence stigma in humanitarian contexts: assessment of scale psychometric properties and validity with female sexual violence survivors from Somalia and Syria.Conflict and health · 2021Article
- Thirty Years of Human Rights Study in the Web of Science Database (1990-2020).International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Attitudes towards Violence in Adolescents and Youth Intimate Partner Relationships: Validation of the Spanish Version of the EAV.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Reflective Functioning of Refugee Mothers with Children Born of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- The Impact of Avoidant/Disengagement Coping and Social Support on the Mental Health of Adolescent Victims of Sexual Violence in Eastern Congo.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Article
- The impact of Cognitive Processing Therapy on stigma among survivors of sexual violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo: results from a cluster randomized controlled trial.Conflict and health · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe conflict-ridden context of eastern Congo has set the scene for grueling human rights violations, with sexual violence as one of the 'weapons of war'. Currently, sexual violence continues, with a considerable increase in civilian perpetrators. However, little is known regarding the particular impact of different experiences of sexual violence on adolescents' mental health. This study therefore investigates the impact of sexual violence on eastern Congolese adolescents' mental health and its differing associations with daily stressors, stigma, and the labeling of sexual violence (as 'rape' or 'non-consensual sexual experience').
methodsA cross-sectional, population-based survey design was implemented in 22 secondary schools, randomly selected from a stratified sample, in Bunia, eastern Congo, a region extensively affected by war. A total of 1,305 school-going adolescent girls aged 11 to 23 participated. Self-report measures of mental health symptoms, war-related traumatic events, experiences of sexual violence, daily stressors, and stigmatization were administered. Differences in sociodemographic characteristics, traumatic experiences and daily and social stressors between types of sexual violence (rape, non-consensual sexual violence, no sexual violence) were explored through statistical analysis. ANCOVA analyses investigated associations between those risk factors and adolescents' mental health.
resultsMore than one third of eastern Congolese adolescent girls reported experiences of sexual violence. Elevated levels of daily stressors, experiences of stigmatization, and stressful war-related events were found amongst girl victims of sexual violence, with the highest levels for girls who labeled the sexual violence as rape. Daily stressors, stigmatization, and war-related events showed a large impact on the girls' mental health. Last, girls who labeled the sexual violence as non-consensual sexual experiences reported more post-traumatic hyper-arousal and intrusion symptoms compared to those labeling the sexual violence as rape.
conclusionsThese findings point to the important association between how war-affected adolescent girls label sexual violence (rape or non-consensual sexual experiences) and their mental health. This study also documents the large impact of sexual violence on other stressors (daily stressors, stigmatization, and stressful war events) and the impact of these stressors on girl victims' mental health. It discusses important implications for addressing sexual violence and its consequences in war-affected contexts.
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