@article{ref1,
title="Short-term and long-term impacts of financial sextortion on victim's mental well-being",
journal="Journal of interpersonal violence",
year="2023",
author="O'Malley, Roberta Liggett",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="Sextortion occurs when an individual threatens to distribute a victim's intimate images, videos, or information unless they comply with the perpetrator's demands. In financially motivated sextortion, these demands include payment of a ransom. Despite global increases in financially motivated sextortion victimization, there is limited research on the psychological impacts of this type of victimization. Leveraging 332 threads (3,276 posts) from a popular sextortion support forum, the purpose of this research was to use inductive qualitative methods to understand how financially motivated sextortion impacts victims' mental well-being, their online engagement, and how they process and deal with these impacts. The results illustrate four main concepts: short-term impacts, long-term impacts, coping strategies, and getting better over time. Short-term impacts included worry, stress, anxiety, self-blame, and somatic symptoms of stress. Long-term impacts included enduring episodes of anxiety. Some sources of coping reported by forum users were to confide in a trusted friend, stay offline, or seek professional mental health care. Despite these impacts, many forum members expressed a sense that their anxiety and distress &quot;get better overtime,&quot; a concept that was assisted through active coping strategies.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0886-2605",
doi="10.1177/08862605231156416",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/08862605231156416"
}