The Role of Experiential Avoidance in Intervention Outcomes for Heavy Drinking College Women with Sexual Assault Histories

Sexual assault (SA) affects 20–30% of college women and is associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and heavy alcohol use. Experiential avoidance (EA), the avoidance of unpleasant internal experiences, has been identified as a maladaptive coping strategy following SA that may interfere with intervention outcomes. The present study examined whether pretreatment EA predicted alcohol use and PTSD outcomes among 96 heavy-drinking college women with SA histories randomized to a brief web-based alcohol intervention. Higher pretreatment EA was associated with continued reductions in drinks per week from posttreatment through 6-month follow-up; reductions were not observed among those with lower pretreatment EA. Pretreatment EA did not differentially predict heavy episodic drinking frequency. Higher pretreatment EA was associated with greater PTSD symptom severity across all timepoints; however, no differential improvement over time was observed. These findings underscore the complex role of EA in predicting intervention response among survivors of SA.