Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy9.5 (Sep 2017): 545-552. Objective: The unique characteristics of sexual assault (SA)—a toxic mix of an interpersonal harm, a violent exploitation of one’s body, and a transformation of an act of connectedness into an act of submission—are postulated to negatively affect the self-concept. We sought to deepen the understanding of self-concept impairments among sexually assaulted women with varying levels of posttraumatic distress. To this end, we compared women with a main trauma of SA to women with a main trauma of motor-vehicle accident (MVA) and to nontraumatized (NT) women on several self-concept aspects. Our main hypotheses were (a) sexually assaulted women without PTSD exhibit impaired self-concept as compared with NT women and (b) SA is related to greater self-concept impairments as compared with MVA, even when posttraumatic distress is statistically controlled. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.