Journal of Educational, Health and Community Psychology
VOL 15 NO 3 SEPTEMBER 2026

Making Sense of Origins and Felt Safety after Repeated Interpersonal Victimization: A Qualitative Single-Participant Study

Annisa Firdausy Iftitahur Rahma (Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Indonesia)
Fitrania Maghfiroh (Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Indonesia)



Article Info

Publish Date
02 Sep 2026

Abstract

Repeated interpersonal victimization can shape posttraumatic distress and young people’s understandings of safety, family belonging, and identity. Yet these processes are often examined separately, particularly among young people raised in informal nonbiological caregiving arrangements. This qualitative single-case study explored how an 18-year-old Indonesian woman made sense of repeated victimization, her nonbiological origins, posttraumatic stress experiences, and efforts to rebuild safety. Data comprised five semi-structured interviews with the participant and two contextual interviews with her caregiving mother. The data were analyzed primarily inductively using experiential, contextualist reflexive thematic analysis. Four themes were developed: (1) safety repeatedly collapsed across relationships and settings; (2) learning about her origins changed how she interpreted herself and her past; (3) the past remained present as an everyday threat; and (4) safety was rebuilt without erasing earlier harm. The findings show that posttraumatic distress was embedded in relational expectations, embodied vigilance, selective disclosure, family belonging, and narrative reconstruction. The study contributes an idiographic account in which felt safety connects repeated victimization, origin-related self-understanding, and recovery. Trauma-informed practice should therefore address symptoms alongside relational safety, agency, boundaries, belonging, and meaning-making. These analytically generalizable findings require further examination across diverse caregiving and cultural contexts using larger, more diverse samples.

Copyrights © 2026






Journal Info

Abbrev

Psychology

Publisher

Subject

Education Public Health

Description

Journal of Educational, Health, and Community Psychology (JEHCP) published an article, and empirical study that have originality, novelty and fill the gap of knowledge, that focused on educational psychology, health psychology and community psychology. JEHCP is an open access peer reviewed, ...