title: Changes in the sexual self-schema of women with a history of childhood sexual abuse following expressive writing treatment.
abstract: Sexual self-schemas are cognitive generalizations about the sexual self that influence the processing of sexually pertinent information and guide sexual behavior. Until recently sexual self-schemas were exclusively assessed with self-report instruments. Recent research using the meaning extraction method, an inductive method of topic modeling, identified 7 unique themes of sexual self-schemas: family and development, virginity, abuse, relationship, sexual activity, attraction, and existentialism from essays of 239 women (Stanton, Boyd, Pulverman, & Meston, 2015). In the current study, these themes were used to examine changes in theme prominence after an expressive writing treatment.
  
  
  
  Women (n = 138) with a history of childhood sexual abuse completed a 5-session expressive writing treatment, and essays on sexual self-schemas written at pretreatment and posttreatment were examined for changes in themes.
  
  
  
  Women showed a reduction in the prominence of the abuse, family and development, virginity, and attraction themes, and an increase in the existentialism theme.
  
  
  
  This study supports the validity of the 7 themes identified by Stanton and colleagues (2015) and suggests that expressive writing may aid women with a history of sexual abuse to process their abuse history such that it becomes a less salient aspect of their sexual self-schemas. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Carey S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Pulverman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Ryan L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Boyd
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Amelia M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Stanton
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Cindy M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Meston
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D054523:Adult Survivors of Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008875:Middle Aged; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D011613:Psychotherapy; D012649:Self Concept; D057566:Self Report; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D020018:Sexual Dysfunctions, Psychological / Q000628:therapy; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014956:Writing; D055815:Young Adult