




































Humanitas: Indonesian Psychological Journal  

Vol. 19 (1), February 2022, 1-12 
ISSN:  2598-6368(online); 1693-7236(print)                                                                 

        humanitas@psy.uad.ac.id  http://dx.doi.org/10.26555/humanitas.v19i1.7 

Resilience process of a victim sexual violence in women: Transformation 

from victim to activist 

Risma Inayah, Sara Palila 

Department of Psychology, Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Kalijaga, Indonesia 
Corresponding Author: rismainayah1@gmail.com 

 

 

Introduction 

Humans are faced with life's ever-increasing challenges and events that can lead to traumatic 
conditions, such as natural disasters, loss, and sexual violence. Sexual violence is a common 
problem across nations. It is estimated that one out of three women in the world has ever 
experienced physical or sexual violence (Devries et al., 2013). Sexual violence is violence of 
human rights that affects millions of people worldwide. One in four women had experienced 
at least one incident of sexual violence during their lifetime (Bows, 2018). Empirical evidence 
from 21 regions and 81 countries, the study revealed that 30% of women aged 15 and over 
had experienced physical and or sexual violence during their lifetime (Devries et al., 2013). 
Moreover, recent data published reported that about 1 in 3 (30%) women had been subjected 
to physical and or sexual violence (World Health Organization, 2021). This fact indicated 
that sexual violence problems are experienced across the nation, both in developing and 
developed countries, including Indonesia. 

Sexual violence is excessively extreme restrictions on women's sexual and reproductive 
autonomy (Blake et al., 2014). The World Health Organization (WHO) defines sexual 

ART ICLE  INFO  

 

AB ST R ACT  

 

Article history 

Received May 23, 2021 

Revised January 13, 2022 

Accepted January 31, 2022 

 Humans face numerous life challenges and phenomena that could 
cause traumatic feelings, such as violent cases. Amid these 
challenges, resilience was an essential psychological ability for 
individuals, including victims of sexual violence. Thus, this study 
aimed to determine the resilience process, factors that influenced and 
the meaning of the resilience process traversed by women victims of 
sexual violence. This research involved three informants who were 
victims of sexual violence. A qualitative method with a 
phenomenological approach was applied in this study. The semi-
structured interviews were conducted in data collection. The data 
were analyzed with interpretative phenomenological analysis. Based 
on the analysis of transcribed interviews, three themes emerged: 
experienced various unpleasant emotions, coped and adapted with the 
situation, experienced several changes in herself and became resilient. 
Participants also have their meaning of the resilience process. 
Furthermore, the new finding is the pain victims experience, and their 
coping forces them to become resilient and join the organization that 
focuses on against sexual violence. Internal and external factors affect 
the resilience of victims, including empathy, social concern, and goals 
to be achieved. The implication of this study is to enhance the current 
literature on resilience and as additional knowledge to understand the 
resilience process and factors that influence victims of sexual 
violence to become resilient.  

 

    

 
Keywords 

resilience;  

sexual violence; 

trauma; 

women. 

 

mailto:humanitas@psy.uad.ac.id
http://dx.doi.org/10.26555/humanitas.v19i1.7
mailto:rismainayah1@gmail.com


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violence as any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or 
advances, or acts to traffic or otherwise directed against a person’s sexuality using coercion 
by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting, including but not 
limited to home and work (World Health Organization, 2021). Sexual violence might affect 
victims, both physically and psychologically. Physically, the impact is genital trauma, death, 
unwanted pregnancy, sexual dysfunction, and sexually transmitted diseases (Blake et al., 
2014). Psychologically, the impacts include depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress 
disorder (PTSD), phobias, fear of sexual intercourse, fear of pregnancy due to rape, and 
suicidal thoughts (Devries et al., 2018; Fu’ady, 2011; Scott et al., 2017). Women who have 
been sexually abused may face specific barriers to developing healthy relationships, such as 
an inability to trust themselves and members of the offending gender (Newsom & Myers-
Bowman, 2017). Sexual violence victims might also obtain social stigma, exclusion, and 
rejection (Leon et al., 2008).  

Previous research found that women who became victims of violence tend to develop 
PTSD (Post-Traumatic Syndrome Disorder) in the future (Fu’ady, 2011). Among the victims 
of sexual violence who experienced PTSD, they have not reached the appropriate level of 
resilience (Muhid et al., 2017). However, not all victims experience the wholly negative 
impact of and experience PTSD. Some victims can adapt, get up, and recover from the 
traumatic events they experienced. They can accept themselves positively (Muhid et al., 
2017). This ability to adapt and take positive aspects from unpleasant experiences is referred 
to as resilience (Dewi & Hendriani, 2014). Resilience is one of the most critical psychological 
abilities for individuals (Hendriani, 2013). Moreover, resilience has more and more 
commonly been mentioned as another psychological resource (Tsirigotis & Łuczak, 2018).  

Resilience is an important aspect of recovering from traumatic events (Lee et al., 2013). 
Resilience is a dynamic process that focuses on recovery and adaptation to difficult 
circumstances so that individuals can return to their healthy mental state (Luthar & Cicchetti, 
2000; Reich et al., 2010). Moreover, resilience is an individual's ability to be strong to gain 
new experiences and have positive emotions when undergoing unusual conditions and 
traumatic events (Bonanno et al., 2011).  

The resilience of the sexual violence victims formed gradually. People have different 
processes for forming resilience. There are four phases of the resilience forming process 
(Hendriani, 2013). First is the stress phase, in which the individual is dominated by attitudes 
and behaviors that discover an increase in the amount of pressure experienced. The second 
phase, self-reconstruction, begins when the stress experienced slowly decreases due to the 
number of factors that strengthen psychological conditions both from within and outside. 
Individuals perform coping strategies as the key to adaptation. Third, the strengthening phase 
is passed by individuals with various activities that strengthen psychological conditions, 
observing emotions that sometimes fluctuate. The coping and adaptation strategies carried 
out in the previous phase continue to be carried out by individuals to face new problems. 
Fourth resilience phase, in which the individual is in a stable psychological condition and 
continues to improve in managing emotions. Individuals accept suffering from all its 
consequences as part of the whole self. Although individuals experience difficulties, 
individuals can still discover empathy, do not dissolve in the difficulties they face, are more 
enthusiastic in facing life's challenges. Individuals show great effort to stay productive 
(Hendriani, 2013). 

Two factors influence the resilience forming process, internal and external factors (Choi 
et al., 2019). Internal factors come from within the individual, which is used to deal with 
stressful situations and internal control, for example, self-efficacy, self-esteem, positive 
affect, self-worth, optimism (Lee et al., 2013). In contrast, external factors are sources that 
come outside the individual, for example, support systems and clinical settings (Domhardt et 
al., 2014; Manomenidis et al., 2019).  



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The interaction between risk and protective factors might affect resilience. Risk factors 
directly increase the likelihood of an individual having negative behavior. For example, 
people who have depressive symptoms and severe anxiety-related impairments had a lower 
level of resilience (Lee et al., 2013). Protective factors may facilitate an individual's 
adjustment and increase resilience (Choi et al., 2019; Dewi & Hendriani, 2014). A literature 
review study found the main protective factors that increase resilience are family and social 
support, education, optimism, ability to overcome problems, the focus of control, and self-
efficacy (Domhardt et al., 2014). 

Previous quantitative research on the resilience of victims of sexual harassment 
suggested that qualitative research is necessary for considerably deeper research data 
(Izzaturohmah & Khaerani, 2018). Several studies have also discussed resilience (Fajrina, 
2012; Naufaliasari, 2013; Newsom & Myers-Bowman, 2017). Previous research focused on 
adolescents who experienced pregnancy due to sexual violence (Fajrina, 2012), other research 
focused on women who experienced sexual violence in their childhood (Domhardt et al., 
2014; Newsom & Myers-Bowman, 2017), and research focused on the resilience of African 
American Women survivors of child sexual abuse (Singh et al., 2013). However, the specific 
topic about achieving resilience in the victims of sexual violence in Indonesia has not been 
studied yet. Thus, this study will examine how resilience was forming in the victims of sexual 
violence. This study focuses on young adult women who have experienced sexual violence 
as teenagers and become women activists. 

Method 

In this study, the qualitative method with the phenomenological approach was applied. The 
data collection process mainly uses interviews. The observation was also be conducted as 
supporting data. The data used in this research is primary data that directly comes from the 
participants.  

Participants  

Purposive sampling was applied in this study. Before recruiting process, information about 
this research was disseminated on social media. Prospective participants who were willing to 
participate in the study and met the inclusion criteria were contacted. The authors explain the 
description of the data collection process that will be carried out, the possible losses 
experienced, and provide informed consent. The informed consent also depicted information 
about the use of pseudonyms in reporting the research. The authors schedule the interview 
when the participant has agreed to participate in the interview process. The participants in 
this study were three women who had experienced sexual violence, lived in Yogyakarta, and 
then became women activists for a minimum of two years. They are active in organizations 
that focus on against women's violence. Table 1 shows the demographic data of the 
participants. 
 
Table 1 
Participant Information 

No. Name Age Activist* Sexual Violence Experience 

1 ZA 22 3 Being exposed to the genital area of men (exhibitionism), 
get her breast squeezed without consent.  

2 NA 24 3 Attempted rape, get her breast squeezed without consent 

3 AL 21 5 Attempted rape, sexual harassment  

Note: *Total year of participant become an activist in women sexual violence 
 



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Data collection  

The author collected the data with a semi-structured interview method, one-on-one interviews 
at a private location selected by each participant, a total of three times for each participant. 
Before the interview, the questions were arranged based on Reivich & Shatte's (2002) 
resilience theory. Each participant was asked the same question but did not rule out other 
flexible questions to explore unanticipated topics that appeared during interviews. The author 
recorded the interview and then transcribed it verbatim. The research questions revolve 
around three main things. The experience of sexual violence experienced, the process of 
resilience, the factors that influence and the participant's meaning of her experience as a 
woman, and the process she has gone through. All interviews were conducted by the first 
author and lasted from 1 to 2 hours.  

Data analysis 

The data were analyzed using the theory of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, 
2015), which consists of four steps. First, write and read the full description. The author wrote 
the entire interview transcript and reread the interview results in this step. The second step is 
compiling or making parts of the description to find units of meaning. At this step, authors 
begin to understand interview transcripts, then do coding and record meaningful, important, 
or interesting texts in the interview process. Furthermore, the authors conducted a reduction 
to focus on highlighting the important things conveyed by the resource persons.  

Third, develop themes or meanings. At this step, authors develop and discover 
appropriate themes and record them. Authors read and reread the results of the reduction and 
coding that have been carried out in the previous process and group them into similar themes. 
This process aims to find an appropriate theme to represent what the resource person conveys. 
The last step is connecting between themes and writing. At this step, authors reread, analyze 
and relate similar themes to become a broad theme. The first author then discusses the results 
of the theme with the second author to determine whether the theme used is representative of 
the entire interview. 

Professional checking and member checking were applied as the data triangulation 
techniques. After the entire process of data analysis and research results is complete, the 
authors carry out professional checking by conveying the process that has been passed and 
the research results. The professional then provided input so that the authors make 
improvements. 

Results 

The results show themes on the resilience process, the factors influencing the resilience, and 
the participant's meaning of their experience. Each participant who experienced sexual 
violence went through several phases to achieve resilience and had their meaning. We used 
pseudonymous initials AL, ZA, and NA.  

 The participants experienced sexual violence more than one time. The first 
participant, AL, has experienced attempted rape by someone she knew. The second 
participant is ZA, that experienced sexual harassment when she was in a vocational school. 
The sexual harassment experienced by ZA was the perpetrator showed his genitals 
(exhibitionism) and squeezed her breasts when she was cycling. The last NA had experienced 
sexual harassment and attempted rape. 

The resilience process   

Experienced a variety of unpleasant emotions. After being sexually assaulted, participants 
felt very afraid, angry, withdrew from society for a few days, and traumatized. Participants 



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are also experiencing a sleeping problem. As a result, the participant experienced an inability 
to carry out the activities and plans that she had previously arranged.  

It was the first time for me to be traumatized, afraid to go to school, afraid to be alone; I 
was disgusted at that time (ZA) 
 
That is all I am traumatized; in September, I had a plan, so it was ruined because I could 
not do anything, I could not think anything (AL) 
 
Mmmm, I feel like I have not come to terms with it..a few times, I dream about it, several 
times because of that dream, I woke up with irregular breath (NA) 

  
Besides, almost all participants except NA blamed herself and negatively viewed 

herself. Both AL and ZA thought that she was dirty because of that incident. They also felt 
guilty towards herself and blamed herself. 

I felt dirty; what the hell I am weak, why I unable to refuse at the time? If I might have to 
dodge, I am not going through this.. I feel so wrong at myself, it is true, because why I can 
not give firmness to myself (AL) 

Coped and adapted to the situation.  To overcome stress and unpleasant emotions, all 
participants have coping strategies and adapt to the situation. The participants told their 
experiences to their friends and seniors in the organization. By telling their experience, 
participants got support and were motivated to survive. They also feel not alone. 

I realized at the beginning that what motivated me to survive was from outside myself, the 
seniors, they reminded me (AL) 
 
I told my best friends about the incident, and I got support. I felt not alone (ZA) 

 
Even though she got support from her friend, ZA was still traumatized and anxious. She 

was afraid that the experience would happen one day. ZA attempted to keep herself busy, to 
forget the bad experience. She kept herself busy with drawing and joined the organization. 
ZA also received education from the school about exhibitionism. This education made ZA 
feel better and understand her experiences and the conditions of the perpetrator herself. Then, 
ZA empathized with the perpetrator and encouraged her to forgive the offender. Forgiving 
the offender for her was an attempt to heal herself so that the burden that she felt was lessened. 

Apart from empathy etc., the most influential thing is to forgive the perpetrator, forgive 
her  for me, to heal myself (ZA) 

 
The incident encouraged NA to find out more about her experience. Then, NA joined 

the organization and read many books related to gender and feminism. NA's thinking concept 
about her experiences changed drastically, so she did not have harmful stereotypes against 
her, such as feeling guilty and seeing herself as unclean. In this organization, NA first talked 
about her experiences and felt accepted. Many of her friends have experienced the same thing 
not to feel alone. Continuing from here, NA joined an NGO working on anti-violence issues 
against women. NA was in progress and continues to reflect. NA hopefully understands her 
state and the causes and effects of the experience. NA had also learned to come to terms with 
herself and her experiences of abuse. 

Yeah, as a justification, as part of the recovery process, I was in an NGO, I learned so 
much about myself, reflected on myself and my experience (NA) 

  



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While at the organization, NA also told about her experience of harassment to one of 
her organizational friends. The acceptance without judgment that she got from her friends 
made NA feel better and not feel alone. She realized that many others shared her experience. 

Experienced several changes in herself and became resilient. After some coping strategies, 
all participants have several influences and changes. For example, in participant AL, she had 
started to accept the incident compared to 2-3 weeks after the incident. The progress she has 
made so far is that she has been able to talk more openly about her experiences without feeling 
overly sad. In fact, at this time, AL can be grateful for her better condition. AL was more 
cautious about trusting others. She became more socially distant and worried about new 
people she met. She feels this is important to avoid a bad experience. One of the admirable 
things is that the experience of sexual harassment she experienced often makes all the 
participants involved in the movement and women's issues. For the AL participant, her 
experience prompted her to join several organizations advocating violence against women. 
AL did this because she had felt how to be a victim; she did not want other people to feel it. 
She then felt the need to become a stronger person. AL has often spoken about taboo issues, 
including the sexual harassment she had experienced. AL wants other women to have the 
courage to speak up. 

Okay, I cannot keep being weak, I cannot be like this, I try to be normal, this is a supporter 
for me being more enthusiastic about voicing and campaigning for taboo things not to 
become taboo (AL) 

 
ZA also has progressed. Although she cannot fully accept it, ZA feels that she is now 

better and braver than initially. Although she said she had accepted the incident, ZA felt that 
she could not fully accept it in her deepest heart.  

In the deepest heart, it is not necessarily able to accept, which I really accept that when I 
have been through it long enough until I can talk to my friends that I am okay (ZA) 

 

 NA also has progressed after doing some coped. NA was grateful for this experience 
because she could discover gender issues, join organizations, read many books, and become 
a volunteer to help women in violence. NA saw the experience of sexual violence as a fire 
that encouraged her to obtain involved and continue the process until today. For NA, the 
process she is currently undergoing will continue to obtain a natural recovery. NA is still 
afraid if she has to go alone or gather with friends in an organization who are all male. The 
valuable experience that NA experienced made her could empathize with people who 
experienced the same thing. NA also understood the cause and effect of these experiences. In 
addition, NA was also able to manage emotions better. 

 

External Factors that Influence Resilience  

Support from friends and parents. One factor that affects a person's resilience is the social 
support system. All participants got support from friends. ER has friends who provide support 
after being sexually harassed. AL had the support of a female activist friend. NA feels that 
her boyfriend and her seniors in the organization can understand her situation and fully 
support her. NA also often discusses and tells stories with her boyfriend and senior, so this is 
special healing for NA. Feeling understood and supported helps NA obtain through it. 

In my boyfriend now I tell my situation, I tell the situation, I don't bear the burden alone 
(NA) 

 
Join The Women's Movement Organization or Community. The participants joined several 
organizations working on the issue of violence against women. In this organization, 



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participants feel that they have a supportive environment and understand several things 
related to victims of sexual violence. By following the organization, participants realize that 
many other people have also experienced their experiences, and many cases are much more 
significant. They are increasingly aware that other women experience so many similar cases 
that they are not even aware they have been harassed. 

Mm, I joined organization X. I became a person who moved to support survivors, and I 
joined anti-sexual violence movements (ZA) 
 

Education from Schools and Organizations. ZA received education from school about how 
to respond when seeing people with exhibitionism. This activity made ZA realize that her 
sexual harassment experience was carried out by someone asking for help and getting sick. 

In the end, the activity made me see what I was going through, educating myself and from 
school; at that time, I realized that there are so many people like this, and the victim is not 
just me; it means I feel like I have friends (ZA). 

 
Participant NA also receives education from their organizations. NA becomes 

acquainted with gender issues by joining an organization and does not feel alone. NA also 
read many books related to gender and feminism to influence her mindset on women's issues, 
including the abuse she has experienced. 

After that incident, I went to Jogja and continued to get an education. I started to dare to 
tell stories about myself, and they listened well and didn't judge me like that; they also told 
me about their experiences that were the same as mine (NA). 

 

Internal Factors that Influence Resilience 

Have Goals to Achieve. One thing that makes participants resilient is their goals to achieve. 
ZA doesn't like to see her pitiful self, even though she has goals to pursue and make come 
true. The goals encourage ZA to be more excited and feel better. NA also has many targets 
that she must achieve. Therefore, the experience of sexual harassment could not be an 
obstacle to achieving the target she had set. The target that has been set is the driving force 
for the NA to continue to rise and become strong so that what she has done so far is not in 
vain. 

Because I have academic, social, organizational, and career targets that affect me, yes, 
my wish list, I'll use it to motivate myself to rise (NA). 

 
Empathy and Social Concern. One thing that affects the AL's resilience process is its high 
empathy and social concern. When feeling down, AL felt that she should not be broken and 
stopped because of one person's behavior. AL feels that many people are experiencing 
difficulties and must be helped to remain strong and survive through various problems in her 
life. 

Why because of this one disgusting thing I keep breaking, and when I'm broken, I'll lose it 
all, out there I remember this father, this mother, this mother whom I helped at that time, 
this is one of the things that has made me strong to this day (AL) 

The Meaning of Resilience Process 

Three participants have similar interpretations of the process that has been passed. AL 
participant interprets the process she goes through as a learning process full of challenges, 
encouraging her to become more mature. This process is challenging because it collides with 
complete self-acceptance, making it more mature. AL felt that she had to make it through 



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this. AL feels that there will be more severe challenges in the future than this; therefore, AL 
is trying to overcome this challenge. Another meaning of the resilience process that AL goes 
through is that she is grateful for her experience. AL felt grateful for being given more 
strength by God to go through this painful experience. AL believes that Allah will not give 
trials beyond her limits. She believes that she is strong and capable of getting through this. 
AL believed in the power of God and felt that she could not be weak. 

Grateful for being given more strength, you cannot be weak; you have to believe in the 
power of God (AL) 

 
ZA also interpreted that the experience of sexual harassment has led her to become 

more sensitive to women's issues. ZA also realizes that what she has experienced is only a 
small part of cases of sexual violence that are still very rampant. ZA, at this time, was finished 
with the experience she had. 

I see this case as a case that happens a lot. If I have never been a survivor. I might do anti-
violence movements because I have never experienced violence (ZA) 

 
Also, ZA saw herself as someone lucky to be through the process with a positive and 

obtain support from their surroundings. She feels lucky because many other people are not as 
lucky as she is; they still have a prolonged trauma. After all, they are unable to manage the 
trauma they have. 

NA also viewed the experience of harassment as an experience that prompted her to be 
active in women's organizations. At this time, NA has been grateful for this valuable 
experience because the experience led her to know and be active in women's organizations. 
In addition, she can empathize more with fellow victims and process with herself. 

The point is that I am grateful that I went through those events; I am fortunate that I had 
that experience, with this experience it is valuable for me (NA) 

 
NA also assumed that achieving resilience is a learning process that will continue and 

will not stop here. NA feels that she still has to continue the process and learn many things to 
fully recover from everything related to her experience. 

Discussion 

In line with the research objectives, the results of this study provide data on the resilience 
process of the participants, factors that influenced them, and their meaning of the resilience 
process. After experiencing sexual violence, all participants went through was feeling various 
unpleasant emotions. Participants felt angry, shocked, guilty, afraid to travel alone, had 
nightmares, withdrew from society, self-harming, and worried if the violence might happen 
again. These results indicated that the experience provides heavy pressure on the participants. 
Previous research shows that sexual violence has a psychological impact on feelings of fear 
(Blake et al., 2014; Tsirigotis & Łuczak, 2018), anxiety, low self-esteem, distrust, hatred of 
the opposite sex, and nightmares (Lee et al., 2013). The unpleasant feelings indicate 
participants were experiencing the first stage of the resilience theory, which is a stress phase. 
In a stress phase, individuals usually show sadness, anxiety, difficulty accepting reality, and 
other responses that indicate emotional instability (Hendriani, 2013). The participants also 
questioned their experiences, ashamed and blaming themselves for what has happened, and 
developed negative views. These findings align with previous research that sexual violence 
victims have negative self-images, shame, guilt, helplessness, and anxiety (Anggreiny & 
Sulistyaningsih, 2013; Lee et al., 2013). Feelings of shock, anger, guilt and other feelings lead 
participants to self-harm.  



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All participants attempted to cope and adapt to their unpleasant emotions, indicating 
they were in the second phase of resilience, that is, self-reconstruction (Hendriani, 2013). 
Participant tried to cope with the unpleasant emotions by taking up her hobbies and keeping 
herself busy. Besides, telling the violence to the closest friend is also a way to cope with their 
unpleasant emotions. Previous research found that telling stories is an effort to recover (Illenia 
& Handadari, 2011). Moreover, social support from local friends and having friends who 
experience the same thing helps in the victims' recovery process (Muhid et al., 2017). Social 
support is a predicted factor in becoming resilient (Williams & Nelson-Gardell, 2012). 
Sharing what participants have experienced and letting people learn from it made them feel 
joy. Participants felt it was as the burden in their shoulder had lifted, their expressed.  

Internal strength supports the resilience process in victims (Newsom & Myers-
Bowman, 2017). In this study, participants attempted to understand the perpetrator. 
Participants attempted to give empathy and forgiveness to the perpetrator. The knowledge 
participants had learned before made them understand the perpetrator's background. This 
understanding encourages participants to empathize and attempt to forgive the perpetrator for 
the sake of her mental health. Participants initiated their coping strategies to feel better and 
learn to accept themselves. Sometimes participants still feel anxious or have other unpleasant 
emotions, especially when triggers remind them of the experience. Resilience is a dynamic 
process of responding to new vulnerabilities and adapting to changing circumstances 
(Pulvirenti & Mason, 2018). All participants kept doing all the coping and attempted to heal 
themselves. Studies showed traumatic experiences require time in the healing process (Dewi 
& Hendriani, 2014).  

These study findings show that being a victim of violence encourages participants to 
obtain more information about sexual harassment and sexual violence; consequently, 
participants are curious to understand why they experienced sexual violence. Previous 
research found that information and reinforcement from the surrounding environment would 
help victims of sexual violence to accept themselves more (Muhid et al., 2017). Therefore, 
participants understood that other people are also experiencing violence. By joining an 
organization, the participants were more aware of their experiences. Being in an organization 
enables participants to get a support group that plays a role in the resilience forming process. 
As mentioned before, support groups are essential for violence victims (Domhardt et al., 
2014; Muhid et al., 2017; Pulvirenti & Mason, 2018; Williams & Nelson-Gardell, 2012). In 
turn, the participants became more empathetic and supported the other sexual violence 
victims. At the end of their resilience process, participants were more grateful and became 
more resilient. All of the participants felt grateful because that experienced brought them to 
know more about women's issues and have social support. Gratitude has an essential role in 
increasing resilience (Zuanny et al., 2013). Participants also became more solid, motivated, 
and spoke up for the other victims of sexual violence, as they believe sharing stories is a 
healing process. The study also found that solid motivation from within makes victims of 
violence survive (Cecchet & Thoburn, 2014). After all coping strategies, all participants 
experienced several changes and became resilient.  

In this study, participants shared similarities in personal meanings of the sexual 
violence experience that might occur anywhere and anytime. They believe that sexual 
violence or sexual harassment is a crime that long-term impacts the victim. Therefore, all 
participants also take that sexual violence experience led them to be involved in organizations 
or NGOs on women's issues. In achieving resilience, participants were also influenced by 
external and internal factors. Internal factors include participants' goals and targets to be 
achieved, empathy, and high social awareness. While in the previous research, no study has 
found empathy and deep social concern affect the resilience process. On the other hand, 
external factors consist of getting social support and education from the environment, 



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encouraging the informant to understand her experience and respond in the future. These 
external factors support achieving resilience among the victims of sexual violence.  

Luck, more mature, and a learning process are the interpretation of resilience process 
among this study participants. Furthermore, the pain that victims experience and their coping 
forces them to become resilient and join the organization that focuses on sexual violence is a 
particular finding of this study. However, this study has a limitation. In this study, the forms 
of sexual violence experienced by victims were not the same. Therefore, further study needs 
to provide clear boundaries regarding the forms of sexual violence experienced by victims 
and perpetrators of violence. So, it can be explored whether there are differences in the degree 
of trauma to victims.  

Conclusion 

Women with sexual violence experience withdrawing from society, various unpleasant 
emotions, blaming themselves and having a negative view of themselves, and self-harming 
in the first stage of resilience. Then they try to cope and adapt to the situation, experience 
several changes in themselves, and become resilient. Participants interpreted the resilience 
forming process as a learning process that would continue forever. They learn to become 
more empathic, mature, and understand more about themselves. Empathy, high social 
awareness, and having dreams and targets to be achieved are internal factors that affect the 
resilience of victims. While getting social support and getting an education from the 
environment are external factors influencing the resilience process in victims of violence. 
High empathy, social concern, and having goals to be achieved are specifically found among 
this study participants. Furthermore, the pain that victims experience and their coping drives 
the participants to become resilient and join the organization that focuses on against sexual 
violence.  
 

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