Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

Abstract
Background & Objectives: According to the World Health Organization, health is more than the absence of disease; it is about balancing physical, mental, and social well–being. Rape is a type of sexual harassment and violence that mainly includes sexual intercourse that takes place through the genitals against a woman's female body. It is one of the sexual conflicts that supports itself in the form of this phenomenon. It causes many challenges in this field, and this act can happen with physical coercion, threats, abuse of responsibility, or with a person who is incompetent or under legal age. Rape means having sexual intercourse with a person by force and without her consent. Rape is not only a physical and sexual injury and attack but causes serious mental and emotional damage too. Considering that the psychological effects after sexual assault are very high, and following sexual assault and entering the privacy of others, anxiety, depression, sleep disorder, memory disorder, and suicide occur. And since sexual assault endangers people's mental health, it leaves many psychological consequences. As a result, the current research was conducted to explain the process, injuries, and factors affecting sexual assault in women with a grounded theory approach.
Methods: The current research used a qualitative, grounded theory method. In this research, the statistical population included female victims of sexual assault between the ages of 15 and 20 who were referred to the Social Emergency Department of Isfahan Welfare Organization, Isfahan City, Iran, in 2020. The samples were selected by purposeful sampling, which reached saturation with 16 people. A semi–structured interview was conducted to collect data. In qualitative research, information saturation is more important than the number of people studied, which means that the researcher should continue collecting information until no new information is added to the previously collected information. In other words, the collected data will reach theoretical saturation. Of course, the study considered their differences in the sample selection. The sample should have the maximum variety in culture, education, place of residence, financial status, and family conditions. In total, 16 semi–structured interviews were conducted in this research to collect data. To analyze the conducted interviews and increase the accuracy and correctness of the analyses, each interview was typed separately, word by word, and the notes related to it were immediately written line by line in the first few hours. It should be noted that the duration of each interview was between 60 and 80 minutes, according to the willingness of the participants to answer the study topics. MAXQDA software was used to facilitate the coding and data analysis process.
Results: The results of the interviews showed individual, psychological, and family factors (contextual factors) as causal conditions; interpersonal, personality, and spiritual factors (revealing factors) as background conditions; social, cultural, and environmental factors (sustaining factors) as emotional factors; and lifestyle and sexual factors (aggravating factors) as mediating and interventional conditions in sexual assault. In total, these factors will leave a person with physical, mental, mood, cognitive, and behavioral effects and create the background for the person to suffer from various disorders and lack of health in various dimensions and many problems. Four selective codes, 12 core codes, and 145 open codes were extracted in the current research.
Conclusion: Many factors play a role in the formation of sexual assault, and these factors will leave a person with physical, mental, emotional, cognitive effects, and behavioral effects, and the person will suffer from various disorders and health problems in different dimensions. It creates many issues that can be identified in different environments, cultures, and societies to develop effective measures to reduce marital infidelity.