Violence against women: Mental health effects. Part II. Conceptualizations of posttraumatic stress

A broad range of psychological aftereffects have been noted among women who have experienced male-perpetrated violence. These symptoms vary considerably among individuals, across social contexts, and across different types of violent encounters (Coley & Beckett, 1988; Goodman, Koss, & Russo, 1992; Koss, 1988; Straus, Gelles, & Steinmetz, 1980). Nevertheless, a remarkably consistent picture of the psychological sequelae of violence-particularly sexual and physical assault-emerges from the empirical and clinical literature (Koss, 1988). In this article, we use the posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis-a frame that captures many of the disparate symptoms described by researchers-as a basis for exploring several conceptual models that have been developed to explain women's responses to violence.