Women and Trauma
Understanding violence and other trauma in the lives of women and girls has largely focused on domestic or intimate partner violence and childhood abuse, while trauma in men has generally been studied in relation to the experience of war. Today, however, the breadth of trauma experienced by women is increasing. In particular, substantial numbers of women are military veterans who are returning with combat exposure, thus broadening the scope of traumatic experiences for women. We study the disabling effects of traumatic experiences by gender across a full spectrum of underlying causes.
Mission
Our Research Core on Women and Trauma studies how experiences of trauma affect physical and mental health in women and men differently. The Core uses this information to understand risk factors for adverse outcomes, and improve prevention and treatment strategies in reducing poor health outcomes. An important part of our Research Core's mission is to use our findings to inform current clinical practice, and, just as importantly, to assure that questions raised by clinical challenges are addressed in research.
